VERONESE, Paolo
(b. 1528, Verona, d. 1588, Venezia)

Pietà

c. 1581
Oil on canvas, 147 x 111 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

An engraved copy dated 1582 by Agostino Carracci is the first documentary evidence of this picture, which was intended for the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Apart from Christ, it shows only Mary and an angel, against a dark background. The figural composition is notable for its severe closeness of forms, with the drama lying in the interplay of the expressive heads. The innovative quality of the devotional picture is underlined by the existence of several weaker replicas and variants carried out at a later date by Benedetto Caliari and colleagues from the workshop.

The painting is the best version of the surviving three- and four-figure paintings depicting the Lamentation of Christ. Recent X-ray investigations revealed a second angel at the left side of Mary.