Pietà of Tarascon

Pietà
Provence, before 1457
Painting H. 0.84 m; W. 1.30 m
 Tarascon Castle
Dépôt du Louvre, 1910; 
Cl. 18509

A theme favoured by pious men of the late Middle Ages, la Pietà represents Christ, dead in his mother's lap, sometimes, as here, with Saint John and Saint Magdalen, and two female saints. The composition and certain dertails, such as Saint John's gesture as he delicately removes the crown of thorns from Christ's head, were revisited in the extraordinary Pietà d'Avignon d'Enguerrand Quarton (Louvre). On the whole, the piece reveals a knowledge of Flemish painting, sensitive in the tubular or deeply creased folds in the clothing and in the treatment of the faces. But the implacable light striking the characters and the contrasting shadows are the mark of an artist who has assimilated the pictorial culture of Provence.