Pietà
Unknown Artist
c. 1460
Medium
woodcut, hand colored with watercolor
Dimensions
{"sheet":{"height":0.387,"width":0.288}}
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Severance and Greta Millikin Trust
Accession Number
2002.4
About this artwork
Early woodcuts usually illustrate religious subjects for the spiritual edification and contemplative meditation of a mostly illiterate public. Produced by anonymous craftsmen, these simple, direct images facilitated an intimate dialogue between the individual and the holy figure depicted. Here, a youthful Virgin Mary delicately embraces her dead son’s body, with its hand-colored flesh and drops of blood. Behind her, the wooden cross displays the Instruments of the Passion of Christ: two nails, t...