Pietà
c. 1450/1500
Sculptor
Sculptor
Artwork overview
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Medium
alabaster
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 29.9 x 36.2 x 5.8 cm (11 3/4 x 14 1/4 x 2 5/16 in.)
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Accession
1942.11.2
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Reportedly Lichtenthal Abbey, Baden-Baden.[1] (J. and S. Goldschmidt, Frankfurt-am-Main);[2] Ralph Harman [1873-1931] and Mary Batterman [d. 1951] Booth, Grosse Point, Michigan, by 1923;[3] gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] Lichtenthal as the source is first mentioned by Mary Batterman Booth in a letter to John Walker, undated but with material from late 1942, in NGA curatorial files. On that Cistercian convent in Baden-Baden, see Emil Lacroix et al., Die Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Baden-Baden (Karlsruhe, 1942), 406-522; Sr. M. Pia Schindele, "Die Abtei Lichtenthal; ihr Verhaltnis zum Cistercienserorden, zu Päpsten und Bischöfen und zum badischen Landesherrn im Laufe der Jahrehunderte," Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv 104 (1984), 19-166, and 105 (1985), 67-248. Sister Schindele, archivist of Lichtenthal, who provided these references, reported that the church and convent were supplied with works of art beginning in the late fifteenth century by two noble abbesses, Margaretha von Baden [1477-1496] and Maria von Baden [1496-1519], and that financial difficulties forced the sale of some works of art around the beginning of this century (letter to Alison Luchs, 26 February 1986, in NGA curatorial files).
[2] Mary Batterman Booth to John Walker, undated but with material from late 1942, in NGA curatorial files.
[3] Theodor Demmler, "German Gothic Sculpture in the Ralph N.[sic] Booth Collection, Detroit," Art in America 11 (June 1923), 165-170, fig. 2.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1923
Ralph H. Booth Loan Collection, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1923, no cat.
1926
The Third Loan Exhibition of Old Masters, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1926, no. 84, as middle Rhenish, about 1450.
Bibliography
1923
Demmler, Theodor. "German Gothic Sculpture in the Ralph N. [sic] Booth Collection, Detroit." Art in America 11 (June 1923): 165-170, especially 166-169, fig. 2.
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "Ralph H. Booth Loan Collection." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 4 (1923): 50.
1926
The Third Loan Exhibition of Old Masters (Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition from Detroit Private Collections). Exh. cat. The Detroit Institiute of Arts, 1926: no. 84.
1942
"National Gallery Gets 3 Sculptures." New York Times 6 December 1942.
1948
Recent Additions to the Ralph and Mary Booth Collection. Washington, 1948: unpaginated, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 165.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 145, repro.
1983
Wilson, Carolyn C. Renaissance Small Bronze Sculpture and Associated Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1983: 159, as Franco-Flemish.
1994
Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 97, repro.
Markings
"22.5" in ink on proper right at back of Mary's bench
Wikidata ID
Q63809475