Dictionary

pietà en · NOUN

Etymology

From Italian pietà. Doublet of piety, and pity.

Meanings

1. A sculpture or painting of the Virgin Mary holding and mourning the dead body of Jesus.
   • Whereas Beuys's early sculptural work was consciously formed within a modernized version of the stylized Romanesque tradition of art, frequently with a Christian content such as crucifixions or pietàs, he gradually was able to free himself from this more traditional approach. 1998, David Adams, “Afterword: The Artistic Alchemy of Joseph Beuys”, in Thomas Braatz, transl., Bees, Rudolf Steiner, page 195:
   • Ceremonial masks, Hindu deities, and pietàs shine down on you. 2009, Pico Iyer, “5: Making Kindness Stand to Reason”, in Rajiv Mehrotra, editor, Understanding the Dalai Lama, page 61:
   • It does not show the events it depicts as static, frozen in the eternal present of historia sacra in the way many late medieval crucifixions, pietàs or annunciations do, but as a narrative. 2011, Caroline van Eck, Stijn Bussels, Theatricality in Early Modern Art and Architecture, page 10:
   • Two ladies were already in the cloister chapel, with a gentleman. As Kitty and her friend entered, these persons had just finished their inspection of the damaged but most beautiful "Pietà" which hangs over the altar, and their faces were towards the entrance. 1905, Mary Augusta Ward, The Marriage of William Ashe:

Forms