Pietà

The Virgin Mary was often associated with Christ’s Passion in an image of grieving sorrow that was designed to move woeshippers deeply in an age when emotions flowed freely. Not surprisingly, this image, which combines the corpse of a tortured son with a mother calling on humanity to bear witness to her grief, harks back to the pietà motif that became popular in the late Middle Ages and has continued to flourish since. In the superbly modelled group in the crypt of the Corsini Chapel by the Florentine sculptor Montauti, the calm grandeur of the Virgin’s outstretched arms declaring her grief and inviting the onlooker to prayer expresses a human as well as a a sacred drama.