Image · Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon
Enguerrand Quarton (attributed) · c. 1455–1460
About this masterpiece
Against a flat gold ground, the lifeless body of Christ is laid across the lap of his mother, who clasps her hands in silent grief. Saint John the Evangelist tenderly removes the crown of thorns while Mary Magdalene weeps. A donor in white kneels at left, his face the only realistically modeled feature in this otherwise hieratic composition. The Provencal city of Jerusalem rises in the distance.
Historical significance
Considered the supreme masterpiece of 15th-century French panel painting, the Pietà was rediscovered at Villeneuve-lès-Avignon in 1834 and acquired by the Louvre in 1905. Its synthesis of Flemish realism, Italian gold-ground tradition and southern French austerity is unique.
