Pietà

In Rome around 1603, a picture of the dead Christ was expected to do work. For decades the Church had been insisting that sacred images should move people and give them something to hold on to when they prayed, and this small Pietà by Annibale Carracci is built for exactly that. Mary sits in the gloom of the tomb with her son's body across her lap, overcome, and the colours are pale, almost drained of warmth. On the ground in the shadows lie the crown of thorns and the bloodied nails. The Kunsthistorisches Museum reads them as fixed points for someone kneeling in front of the picture, each one a stage of the Passion to dwell on in turn. The whole scene is barely 60 centimetres wide, a size meant for a private room and a single person at prayer.