Description
This beautiful 15th-century carved and polychrome wooden Pieta, with a hollowed back, originates from Germany, is commonly known as a Vesperbild. “Vesperbild” literally translates to “evening image” in French. These sculptures traditionally depict the Virgin Mary holding the body of Jesus after his crucifixion. They are often associated with private devotion and were frequently used in evening prayers, hence their name.
This scene, commonly represented in Christian iconography from the 14th century onwards, where Mary cradles her dead son on her lap after the crucifixion, is a creation of Mystical Thought, which emerged in the Rhine Valley around 1320.
The Virgin Mary holds her son lying on her lap, with the legs of Christ falling vertically. The overall appearance, very natural, pyramidal, and well composed, offers a powerful and rigorous composition, pleasing to the eye.
The peaceful and very graceful face of the Virgin, leaning over her son, with delicate and regular features, with her eyes half-closed, is framed by the veil and the guimpe. The beautiful gothic drapery, with its broken and ample folds of the veil, forms her mantle.
Christ, with a well-defined beard and hair, wears his broad crown of intertwined thorns. He surrenders in the greatest simplicity into the arms of the Virgin.
This Pieta, with its perfect harmony, is imbued with restrained grace and serenity, as revealed in the delicate expressions of the faces.