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• Pietà
  Pietà

  noun

  a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of the dead Christ, usually shown held on her lap.
• pietà
  pietà

  noun

  a sculpture, painting, or drawing of the dead Christ, supported by the Virgin Mary

Pietà

American  

[pee-ay-tah, pyay-tah, pee-ay-tuh, pyay-] / ˌpi eɪˈtɑ, pjeɪˈtɑ, piˈeɪ tə, ˈpjeɪ- /

noun

(sometimes lowercase)

1. a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of the dead Christ, usually shown held on her lap.

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pietà British  

/ pɪɛˈtɑː /

noun

1. a sculpture, painting, or drawing of the dead Christ, supported by the Virgin Mary

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Pietà Cultural  

1. A painting, drawing, or sculpture of Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding the dead body of Jesus. The word means “pity” in Italian.

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The most famous of four Pietàs by Michelangelo is a sculpture at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

Etymology

Origin of Pietà

1635–45; < Italian: literally, pity < Latin pietās piety; cf. pity

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Pietà pietà

It reported that the Madonna and Christ in Pietà was removed directly from inside a secure display case, while all the paintings taken were on wooden panels, preventing them from easily being rolled up.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

The most elucidating superimposes a Pietà by Anne-Louis Girodet, David’s little-known pupil, over David’s “Marat.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025

Last year, the local alderman threatened to downzone the church property, reducing its value to developers, and its Pietà had to be moved from the church with a police escort.

From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2023

I took all the time in the world at the Pietà.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 21, 2022

In 1502, moreover, he found time to paint for his Cathedral at Cortona the beautiful "Deposition," in which is a repetition of the Pietà of the Capella Nuova.

From Luca Signorelli by Maud Cruttwell

For Taylor, this outrage from the newspapers becomes a pietà, driven by an intimacy based not on actual acquaintance but rather on personal identification.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 23, 2018

That makes the play’s closing pietà risible when it should be moving.

From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2011

When sorely tempted to purloin Your pietà of Marc Antoine, Fair Virtue doth fair play enjoin, Fair Virtuoso!

From A Selection from the Works of Frederick Locker by Hannah Jane Locker-Lampson

When Julius looked up, his eyes rested upon the bronze pietà, age-old witness to the sanctity of motherhood and of suffering alike.

From The History of Sir Richard Calmady A Romance by Lucas Malet

However, Leo X.'s bull, Inter multiplices, exempts the so-called monti di pietà, and by this means put obstacles in the way of saving, and promoted real usury.

From Principles of Political Economy, Vol. II by Wilhelm Roscher