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Pietà with Angels North Italian Sculptor

Artist

North Italian Sculptor active circa 1600

Culture Italian
Date ca. 1600
Object type relief
Medium, technique marble
Dimensions

50 × 41.7 × 3 cm, 20 kg
with frame: 67.5 × 57.5 × 6.5 cm

Inventory number 84.20
Collection Sculptures
On view Museum of Fine Arts, First Floor, European Art 1600–1700 and British Painting 1600–1800, Gallery I

A rare variant of Pietà depictions, but one that has been known since the fourteenth century, is Christ mourned by angels. In this relief, the collapsing figure of Christ is reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Pietà, preserved in the Opera del Duomo Museum in Florence. This form was popularised by engravings and reappeared in sculpture around 1600. The present example may have been inspired by a high relief by Girolamo Campagna in the left side-altar of the church of San Giuliano in Venice. An unusual feature is the figure of the putto in the lower left corner of the picture, next to whom the unknown sculptor of the relief has placed the insignia of the Passion – the so-called Arma Christi. This depiction appeared in Rome from the 1620s onwards in the circle of Nicolas Poussin and François Duquesnoy.

References

Balogh, Jolán – Szmodisné Eszláry, Éva, Katalog der ausländischen Bildwerke des Museums der bildenden Künste in Budapest, 4.-18. Jahrhundert, Bd. 3. Neuerwerbungen, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994, p. 35., no. 10.

Szmodisné Eszláry, Éva, A Régi Szoborgyűjtemény kincsei, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1994, p. 61.

Szmodisné Eszláry, Éva, The treasures of the Old Sculpture collection, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, 1994, p. 61.

This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.

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