Pietà

The Deposition, 1547–1555, Michelangelo, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence

A famous example by Italian sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti was carved from a block of marble and is located in Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. The body of Christ is different from most earlier Pietà statues, which were usually smaller and in wood. The Virgin is also unusually youthful, and in repose, rather than the older, sorrowing Mary of most Pietàs. She is shown as youthful for two reasons: God is the source of all beauty and she is one of the closest to God, and because the exterior is thought as the revelation of the interior; therefore, the virgin is morally beautiful. Michelangelo's Pieta sculpture is also unique in the fact that it is the only one of his works that he ever signed. Upon hearing that visitors thought it had been sculpted by Cristoforo Solari, a competitor, he carved his signature into Mary's sash as "MICHAELA[N]GELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTIN[US] FACIEBA[T]": "Michelangelo Buonarroti the Florentine did it".[6][7]

In a lesser known Michelangelo Pietà, The Deposition (c. 1547–1555), it is not the Virgin Mary who is holding Jesus' body, but rather Nicodemus (or possibly Joseph of Arimathea), Mary Magdalene, and the Virgin Mary. There is some indication that the man in the hood is based on a self-portrait of the artist.[8] The sculpture is housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence and is also known as the Florentine Pietà.

A generation later, the Spanish painter Luis de Morales painted a number of highly emotional Pietàs,[9] with examples in the Louvre and Museo del Prado.

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  Pietà in frescoes found in the Church of St. Panteleimon, Gorno Nerezi, 1164
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  The Avignon Pietà, Enguerrand Charonton, 15th century
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  15th-century German wood Pietà from Cologne
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  Pieta Tondo by Jean Malouel, between 1400 and 1410 (Louvre)
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  Jean Malouel, Pieta Tondo, detail
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  Austrian Pietà, c. 1420
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  Rogier van der Weyden, Museo del Prado, Madrid, with Saint John and a donor, c. 1440-1450
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  Kraków, c. 1450
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  German or Netherlandish 15th Century, Pietà, c. 1450–1500, National Gallery of Art
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  Pietro Perugino, Uffizi, 1490
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  Swabian painted wood Pietà of c. 1500
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  Giovanni Bellini, c. 1505
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  Dieffler Pietà, Wooden sculpture, presumably 15th or 18th century, former chapel of St Wendelin in Diefflen, Saarland Museum, Old Collection
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  Deposition of Christ, Bronzino, 1540–1545, Musée de Besançon
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  El Greco, Pietà, 1571–1576, Philadelphia Museum of Art
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  Pietà, c. 1600, Annibale Carracci, National Museum of Capodimonte
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  Pietà by Gregorio Fernández, 1616–1619, National Sculpture Museum,
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  18th-century Bavarian example with Rococo setting
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  The Palestrina Pietà originally attributed to Michelangelo but probably by another sculptor
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  Pieta, 1876, William-Adolphe Bouguereau
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  A Pietà in marble by Anton Josef Reiss, 1897
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  Vierge de Pitié, Déploration at Collégiale Saint-Salvi d'Albi, Albi, around 1900
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  Bogdan Cierpisz, Pieta, c. 1980
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  Every year on Good Friday, Port Kollam Church's renowned Pieta is on exhibit.