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

The heavenly finger’s subtle specter of warped Christianity gets emphatic in a 1917 pietà designed by J. Maxwell Miller to celebrate Confederate women in Maryland.

From Los Angeles Times

The poignancy of this cruel spiritual appropriation is pictured by Jon Henry in 14 photographs of Black mothers cradling sons, their pietà poses sprawled at actual locations of police killings of Black men.

From Los Angeles Times

At MOCA, a statue titled “Confederate Women of Maryland,” erected in Baltimore by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, features two women — one of whom is cradling a fallen male soldier in her lap in a tableau resembling Michelangelo’s “Pietà.”

From Los Angeles Times

One of Wilson’s last projects was an installation commissioned by Salone del Mobile in April Centering on Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pietà at Milan’s Castello Sforzesco, the project explored the Virgin Mary’s pain following Christ’s death with a combination of music, light and sculpture.

From Los Angeles Times

When I think of “Gomorrah,” his 2008 drama about a Neapolitan criminal syndicate, I immediately re-see the shot of two dead teenagers in the bucket of a bulldozer — a grotesque Pietà.

From New York Times