2009.14
Pietà
Artists
Jacques Bellange
(ca. 1575 - 1616, Nancy, France);
Rudolph (Rudy) Burckhardt
(Basel, Switzerland, 1914 - 8/1/1999, Searsmont, Maine)
Title
Pietà
Creation Date
1615
Century
early 17th century
Dimensions
12 1/8 in. x 7 3/4 in. (30.8 cm x 19.69 cm)
Object Type
print
Creation Place
Europe, France
Medium and Support
etching and engraving on paper
Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund
Copyright
Public Domain
Accession Number
2009.14
The French etcher Jacques Bellange belongs to the very last stages of Mannerism. His emotionally charged Pietà owes its form to Michelangelo’s presentation drawing for Vittoria Colonna, which was copied and widely disseminated through prints. Bellange conveys feelings of loss and grief through beautiful and highly artificial bodily forms. Christ’s smooth, muscular body sways in a gentle S-curve as he is supported between his mother’s strong knees. Mary’s legs and arms are swathed in ballooning drapery. As if overcome by faintness, the Virgin Mary tilts her head upward toward heaven, exposing her long elegantly curving throat. The delicately tapering fingers of her right hand spread in a graceful gesture favored by Mannerists—the index finger held apart from the others. In contrast, the fingers of her limp left hand swell at the knuckles into sausage-like appendages.