Pietà

Annibale Carracci's Pietà shows Mary seated on the bare ground, holding the dead body of Christ across her lap while she gently cradles his head in her right hand. The group is placed in front of an open tomb, perhaps a reference to the resurrection, and the figures emerge from a nocturnal darkness through contrasts of light and colour. The painting was commissioned by Odoardo Farnese and is usually dated between 1598 and 1600 on stylistic grounds, although its original destination is unknown and it may have been intended for private devotion. Carracci blends two models: Michelangelo's Pietà, from which he takes the pyramidal arrangement, the intimate bond between mother and son and the restrained expression of grief, and Correggio's Lamentation, whose atmosphere of quiet emotion is echoed in the light and colour. Christ's body, of almost Apollonian beauty, also reflects Carracci's close study of classical sculpture. Widely reproduced in engravings and copies, the composition became a canonical image of the Pietà in the Baroque period.

Painter

Annibale Carracci

Date

1599

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

156 × 149 cm

Museum

Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

Genre

religious art

Depicts

Jesus Christ

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