Pietà
(mid 16th century-late 16th century)
Medium
marble
Measurements
41.6 × 25.0 × 9.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bequest of Howard Spensley, 1939
Gallery location
16th & 17th Century Gallery - Painting and Sculpture
Mezzanine linked to Level 1, NGV International
About this work
The image of the Virgin Mary holding the dead Christ, known as the pietà, has its origins in northern Europe in the early fourteenth century, becoming immensely popular, especially in sculpture form. The pietà distils the psychological and theological drama of the Virgin’s profound grief at her son’s death. Often, as in this marble example, the Virgin holds him up to the viewer, a presentation of Christ’s sacramental body. The pietà is an episode undescribed in the gospel narratives yet it enjoyed enormous currency in Counter-
Reformation Europe It is precisely the sort of devotional image that Catholic missionaries carried across Asia and the Americas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Italy
Accession Number
4110-D3
Department
International Sculpture
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Dame Carol Colburn-Grigor CBE through Metal Manufactures Limited