German school of the second half of the 16th century

German school of the second half of the 16th century.
"Pietà", based on an engraving by Domenicus Custos on a relief by Guglielmo della Porta.
Relief in gilded and polychrome wood. Inside an urn.
Measurements: 78 x 56,5 x 10 cm.

Devotional relief in carved wood representing the theme of the Pietà. The image is based on an engraving of Domenicus Custos on a relief of Guglielmo della Porta, this last one conserved in the Metorpolitano Museum of Art. It stands out for the careful work of the polychrome with the mantle and the nimbus of the Virgin in gold. The iconography of the Pietà arises from a gradual evolution of five centuries and, according to Panofsky, derives from the theme of the Byzantine Threnos, the lamentation of the Virgin over the dead body of Jesus, as well as from the Madonna of Humility. The first artists to see the possibilities of this theme were German sculptors, the first example being found in the city of Coburg, a piece from around 1320. With the passage of time the iconography will spread throughout Europe, and already in the seventeenth century, after the Counter-Reformation, became one of the most important themes of devotional painting. It is a work carved in round wood, polychrome that represents the theme of the Pietà: the Virgin seated with the dead Christ in her lap, a theme of deep dramatism not only because of the theme itself, but also because its composition evokes the images of the Virgin with the Child Jesus in her lap. Iconographically, the Pietà is a very repeated theme in the history of art, especially from the Renaissance onwards. It is an image taken from the Passion, starring a sorrowful Virgin Mary holding the dead body of her son. In fact, it is a plastic representation of Mary's pain before the truth of her dead son, and in fact from this theme will derive the representations of the Dolorosa, in which only the Virgin appears.