Pietà

   A scene depicting the dead body of Christ supported by his mother, the Virgin Mary, or his followers. Among the earliest depictions of this sort from the Renaissance is Giovanni da Milano's rendition of 1365 (Florence, Accademia), which shows the dead body of Christ supported by the Virgin and St. John. Giovanni Bellini's Pietà (1460; Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera) shows the same three figures against a landscape, with Mary leaning her head on her son's shoulder. The most famous Pietà is that by Michelangelo (1498/1499-1500; Rome, St. Peter's), where the Virgin spreads her left arm as if to present the Savior to the faithful. Titian rendered the Pietà (c. 1576; Venice, Galleria dell' Accademia) as a deeply emotional scene with the seated Virgin holding the dead body of Christ on her lap in the manner of Michelangelo, the distressed St. Jerome (his self-portrait) crawling toward the Savior, and Mary Magdalen in anguish running toward the viewer with right arm raised as if to proclaim his death. Annibale Carracci (1600; London, National Gallery) placed his figures in a pyramid of bodies leaning on each other to denote the extreme sense of sorrow felt by the mourners.

   See also Pietà, St. Peter's, Rome.