Pietà

American  

[pee-ey-tah, pyey-tah, pee-ey-tuh, pyey-] / ˌpi eɪˈtɑ, pyeɪˈtɑ, piˈeɪ tə, ˈpyeɪ- /

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; pity

Example Sentences

Two hours and a rapid PCR test later, I sat in the dark of a tent, watching as two young women formed a kind of Pietà in a pool of warm yellow lamplight.

From New York Times

“Karyn loves to live in the painting,” someone murmured, seeing the same Pietà in the light of the lamps.

From New York Times

Pieta Brown — the daughter of the longtime Iowan folk songwriter Greg Brown — sings about love and trust over the producer JT Bates’s edgeless electronic chords and sputtering 6/4 beats.

From New York Times

But the piece I kept returning to was “Pieta 1969,” a Mardi Gras-colored study of Mary cradling Jesus’s lifeless body above a letter one of Kent’s students wrote her about Robert Kennedy.

From New York Times

During the town’s Renaissance boom years, Michelangelo roamed the surrounding quarries for weeks to find the perfect piece of marble for his Pietà masterpiece.

From New York Times