Exchange: Pietà (The Lamentation of the Virgin)

54 Items in this Learning Collection

Battle of the Sea Gods

This black and white print depicts an animated and detailed scene of nude figures and mythical beasts on the surface of the sea.Two men, with seaweed hair and riding half horse/half fish creatures, strike out at each other. A man and a woman ride a beast with a scaly body and the head of a fierce dog. In the background, a man holding a trident stands with his back to the viewer. Action and motion are expressed with billowing drapery, flowing hair and moving waves. The wide mouthed expressions of the figures and animals suggest yelling and noise in this chaotic scene. Among the many details depicted by the artist is a plaque held by the woman that has his initials.

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Christ on the Cross, Pierced with a Spear

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Pietà (The Lamentation of the Virgin)

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Christ in Limbo (The Harrowing of Hell) from "The Small Woodcut Passion"

A group of figures at the left stand in a vaulted space under a cross. They look towards the lower right of the composition where a man holding a standard with a cross on top is bending forward and offering his hand to an old bearded man in an arched doorway. Above the doorway are several fantastical figures with beaked or animal heads and arms with claws. Signed in the block "AD", lower right, recto.

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The Entombment from "The Small Woodcut Passion"

A group of four men gently lower a figure into a tomb that is placed parallel to the viewer. To the left is a group of mourners with hands clasped. One female figure kneels at the ledge of the tomb and holds a covered jar. Behind the figures is a rocky landscape with a fence and guard at the gate in the distance at the left. An entrance to a cave is indicated on the right, directly behind the tomb, with the use of dense, dark hatching. At the lower right corner is a circlet of thorny branches.

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Christ before Caiphas from "The Small Woodcut Passion"

A man seated on a throne under a canopy on the right looks toward a group of standing figures on the left. A group of soldiers in helmets and armor and spears surround a tall bearded man who stands looking at the seated official. In the distance is a view of a town in a landscape and at the feet of the seated man is a dog. The print is signed in the block "AD" on the lower left of the recto.

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Saint Jerome in His Chamber

Print trimmed to image frame line. Paper repaired along the right edge of the print. Paper size: h 24 7/10cm x tw 18 3/5cm & bw 18 4/5cm.

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Nativity

Paper trimmed to frame. Tacked down to mat on all four sides. Paper size: h 13 x tw 10 1/10cm & bw 10cm.

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The Peasant and His Wife at Market

A couple stand in a very dense and congested space, a broken wall behind them. The woman on the left holds a rooster by the feet and is looking at her husband, on the right, who has his hand extended and his holding a money bagin is left hand. At their feet is a stoppered jar and a basket full of eggs.

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St. Paul

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Bearing the Cross, Plate 10 from the engraved Passion

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Betrayal of Christ, Plate 3 from the engraved Passion

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Nativity

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Christ Disputing

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Satyr's Family

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Christ Before Pilate, from "Small Engraved Passion"

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Descent of the Holy Ghost

Woodcut unevenly trimmed with a clean image; some broken lines in light rays (left and right top) and dark folds of clothing.

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The Last Judgment

Woodcut print with some distortion/fading in lines in upper right corner (hilt of sword, trumpet, light rays); broken lines near right arm of Christ; text visable through paper.

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The Cook and his Wife

Two figures dominate the image with little reference to setting other than a low horizon line and some pebbles in the lower left. A man stands tothe lelft wearing simple tradesman's clothes; in his right hand he holds a ladle and another cooking implement. A knife in its sheath hangs at his waist. On his left shoulder stands a bird wtih wings open that is facing the man. To the right is a woman with a headdress and veil and cloak wrapped over one shoulder and in front of her.

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The Virgin as Queen of the Angels

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Oceanus (from a Series of 6 Mythological Figures)

A powerfully muscled nude man sits astride a fearsome sea creature. He grasps an oar in his left hand and the beast's reins in his right, while a cloth billows out behind him. A variety of humanoid creatures frolic in the seascape in the background.

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Coat of Arms with the Cock

A composition with a heraldic motif: a rooster standing on top of a helmet with visor and throat guard, below which is a sheld or other carving with a rampant lion. Surrounding on either side is vigorous foliage (acanthus leaves).

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Christ Before Caiaphas; from the 'Engraved Passion'

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The Circumcision (Life of the Virgin Series)

A crowd gathers in the side chapel of a church around a group of seated figures and an infant. A man with a long flowing beard sits and holds the infant in his hands above a plate, while another man leans forward in his chair and peers through his spectacles at the child as he performs a circumcision. A plaque with the artist's initials, "HG," lies on the floor in the foreground.

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The Flagellation (Large Passion Series)

At the center of this densely detailed print stands a male figure, nude except for a loincloth, with his hands tied behind him to a column. He is encircled by a crowd of figures, including three men who beat him with whips, switches, and fists. A fourth figure leers at him grotesquely, while another sits on the ground with his feet against the column and pulls the ropes holding their victim. Another figure, wearing elaborate armor, kneels in the foreground as he prepares his switches. Onlookers, some wearing elaborate turbans and robes inspired by Turkish clothing, stand behind the torturers. A crown of thorns sits in the lower right corner and a small dog appears in the center foreground next to the artist's initials.

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St. Jerome in His Study

This engraving depicts a comfortable domestic interior. An old bearded man sits poring over a book at table in the back of the room. A lion and dog rest on the floor in the foreground. Various other objects appear around the room, including a skull, books, slippers, a crucifix, and a pair of scissors.

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The Annunciation, from the Life of the Virgin

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Madonna by the Wall

A young woman, dressed in long robes with her veil drawn over her head, sits next to a wall holding an infant in her lap. She is turned slightly to her right and gazes sweetly upon the child who twists to face the viewer and holds an apple in his left hand. A stream meanders through the landscape of trees and city walls behind them.

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Hercules

A nude man seen from behind raises a staff to ward off the blow of a standing female figure, also with a staff. The woman's swing is directed to two seated figures at the lower left: a nude woman and a satyr. In the distance is an elaborate gated city and landscape.

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The Sea Monster

Two figures are seen riding through the water in the foreground; the woman is nude save for an elaborate headdress, the man holds a tortoise shell as a shield and has an antler-like object on his head and has a serpent-like body which supports the woman. Behind is a minutely described landsape with walled town, castle, and along the opposite bank o the water, nude females swimming and a man running in alarm to the water's edge.

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The Small Passion. Ecce Homo-Christ Shown to the People

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Entry into Jerusalem, from the Small Passion

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Melencolia I

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The Four Avenging Angels from the 'Apocalypse'

This woodcut print is vertically oriented. The upper half of the piece is celestial with an angel standing on a cloud blowing a trumpet. Men on fire-breathing beasts exit from the clouds. At the very top center, a white-bearded figure, shown from the torso to the head, holds four trumpets. Rays emanate from his head to form a halo, and he is framed in a half circle. Directly below him is an altar with vines on the sides and four child-faces spitting water out. The upper right corner features an angel blowing a trumpet and the upper left features a smiling angel with hands clasped in prayer. The lower half of the print is terrestrial and depicts a chaotic battle scene. Four angels with wings and swords attack a crowd of men, including a pope, a bishop and a king, as well as commoners. These figures are all crowded into the foreground with contorted postures. There is a city on a hill visible in the distance. The center bottom has Dürer’s signature of letter "D" contained within a letter &q

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Ecce Homo (Large Passion Series)

A crowd of men, rendered as a dense mass of bodies and faces that bristles with pikes and spears, gather before a porch attached to an ornately decorated stone building. A bearded man, wearing rich dress and a turban leans over the balustrade of the porch toward the crowd with his arms outstretched and his hands open as he turns his head to look at the man standing beside him. This sorrowful figure wears only a crown of thorns and a long robe that is partly opened by the man standing behind him to reveal his lean body flecked with drops of sweat or blood.

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Fragment of a gaming piece with male slaying beast, possibly Hercules and the Erymanthian boar, zigzag pattern with incised circles in border

Fragment of circular gaming piece carved in elephant ivory in high relief. Standing male figure wearing knee-length robe holds sword in right hand and stabs inverted beast in the chest. Forelegs of beast end in hooves; head of beast characterized by large eye and pronounced nostril. Left arm of figure and rear half of the beast missing. Border contains zigzag pattern with bead motif.

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The Mourning Virgin

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Standing Christ

This figure of Christ wears a volumnious mantle and strides forcefully forward with his left leg. His hands, now broken off, once held either a cross-staff or a globe while he made of gesture of blessing with the other. His robe appears to have originally been gilded and then painted over with red to impart his garment with a lustrous quality.

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The Triumph of the Four Elements

Two horses pull a wagon carrying four female passengers in this small bronze plaque. The driver, a seated nude male with a cap takes the reins in his left hand and raises a whip in his right. Behind him sit two pairs of taller female figures, each wearing a long flowing mantle.

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Coconut Cup

This cup is fashioned from a coconut shell set in a shallow bowl supported on a long, narrow stem and held in place by three straps and a tall neck band. The shallow domed lid has a plain, overhanging rim and terminates in a finial with a statuette of a nude sea nymph and serpent. The metalwork is densely decorated with various masks, animals, fantastic creatures, and vegetal ornament.

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Illustration from an Augsburg Bible (Incunabulum)

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The Five Kings Hanged (Joshua 10:26)

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Baptism of a Warrior by a Bishop Saint (recto); Young Woman's Head (verso)

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Design For a Fireplace

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Illuminated Manuscript

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Wolgund Sends a Message to Hugdieterich

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Arms of Maximillian. Illustration from 'Quadriuium ecclesiae,' by Ioh. Hug, Lat

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Tankard with Lid and scenes of Judith, Lucretia, and Venus

The body of the tankard is decorated with two narrow bands of gilded abstract vegetal ornament around the neck and base, separated by a wider band that features three repoussé medallions alternating with three bosses. Each medallion depicts a standing nude female: one of the nudes appears in an interior holding a dagger to her chest; another holds a sword and a man's head and stands beside a female companion; the third holds an elongated arrow with a blindfolded cupid at her feet. The cast handle consists of a clawed bird's foot grasping a ball at the base, followed by a satyr mask, a bound female nude, and, surmounting the handle, the bust of a warrior. The lid, a later addition, bears a wreath with a series of initials and the date 1639.

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Perseus and Andromeda

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Coffeepot

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St. Jerome

This small porcelain sculpture represents a gaunt, sinewy bearded figure, who is naked except for a loincloth. With his right knee wedged in a stump, his torso contracts with an inner tension as he pounds his chest with stones in an act of penitence. At his feet sits a lion.

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Man of Sorrows

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The Last Judgement, from the Nuremberg Chronicle

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Leaf from a Choir Book with Nativity

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Copyright

Pietà (The Lamentation of the Virgin)

Accession Number
1994/2.1

Title
Pietà (The Lamentation of the Virgin)

Artist(s)
Hendrick Goltzius

Object Creation Date
1596

Medium & Support
engraving on thick slightly textured cream laid paper

Dimensions
8 3/4 x 6 3/16 in. (22.2 x 15.7 cm);19 5/16 x 14 5/16 in. (48.9 x 36.2 cm)

Credit Line
Museum Purchase made possible by the Friends of the Museum of Art

Label copy
This print exemplifies the great degree to which artists are in dialogue with each other across time. Around the end of the sixteenth century Haarlem printmaker Hendrick Goltzius, like many of his artist colleagues, paid homage to the early sixteenth-century master Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528). Goltzius evoked the earlier master’s work through the small size of the present image and the placement of Goltzius’ own monogram in sharp perspective in the near foreground. For the present print Goltzius was reminded of an engraving by Dürer in which the corpse-like child on the lap of the mourning Madonna and a pitch-black sky foretell Christ’s death. Instead of the child, however, he looked back to the celebrated Pietà of Michelangelo (Italian, 1475–1564), which Goltzius would have seen in Rome in 1590–1591. As in Michelangelo’s sculpture, the body of Christ depicted in this work is beautifully radiant yet utterly lifeless.
Gallery label text, collections gallery, by Curator Annette Dixon, February, 2000

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Western

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Jesus Christ
Mary
piet‡