Pietà

c. 1510/1520

Giovanni della Robbia

Artist, Florentine, 1469 - 1529/1530

A woman braces the body of a dead young man across her lap in this freestanding, painted, terracotta sculpture. The woman half stands and half crouches with her body facing us in this photograph. Her face is mottled with red and peach and is lined, and her eyes look down or are closed. Her snow-white head covering also lines her face, covers her neck, and rests in folds on her chest. Her lapis-blue cloak drapes over her head and falls to her feet over her long-sleeved, plum-purple dress. The man’s skin is glazed with mottled shades of tan and peach, and he wears only a white loincloth across his hips. The woman supports his head with her right hand, to our left, so her fingers twine with his long curls. The man has a curly beard. His lips are parted, and his eyes are almost closed. His right arm, closer to us, lies across his belly and there is a hole piercing the back of that hand. There is also a gash across his right ribs and holes in the tops of his feet. The woman braces his hip with her other hand, and his legs fall limply to the side, knees bent. The woman stands on a step on a white base, and one purple shoe peeks out under the pooling folds of her blue cloak. Some of the painted, glazed areas are chipped on the white base.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 9


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    glazed terracotta

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 72 x 44 x 32.7 cm (28 3/8 x 17 5/16 x 12 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1943.4.70


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome and Florence); purchased 1931 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1943 to NGA.[1]
[1] Provenance according to Ulrich Middeldorf, Complete Catalogue of the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Sculptures XIV-XIX Century, London, 1976: 38.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2016

  • Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2016-2017, no. 37, repro.

Bibliography

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 232-233, no. A-45.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 254, repro. 235.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 167.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 146, repro.

1976

  • Middeldorf, Ulrich. Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century. London, 1976: 38.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 197, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q63809497


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