Object Description
363 PIETA
At the foot of a cross, slightly to left, the seated Madonna holds the dead Christ across her lap. At right, the Magdalen kneels, her head resting on her hand. Elaborate frame of scroll caryatids supporting cornice inscribed, . HVIVS . LANGVORE . SANVTI . SV; base inscribed, . IO . ANTONIVS . PETRASANTA .
Bronze, traces of silvering, 130 x 99 mm. Reverse surface indicates former use as a pax.
This relief is difficult to date. The proportions of the figures are awkward. They have far too large hands and the Magdalen seems to be larger in size and younger in dress and style than the others. Middeldorf and Goetz mention another pax in the museum of the Cathedral of Pienza with a different frame. The frame of our pax is used also for a relief of Christ and the Apostles in Berlin (Bange, no. 1062); here the frame is organic but not in the case of the pax, for Magdalen and one foot of Christ are cut and the heads of the scroll caryatids are placed awkwardly beside the arms of the cross. This composition seems therefore not to be the original one; moreover, it should be mentioned that the frame of our pax shows the same damage as the frame of the pax in Berlin.
Other specimen: (bronze) Santa Barbara, University Art Gallery, Morgenroth Collection.
Bibl.: Molinier 2, no. 564 (without frame); Morgenroth, no. 310.
