: a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead body of Christ
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebThere’s a three-story wooden church with a ghostly pieta residing in one of its pews, and a reconstructed Maine general store containing many of the original’s actual furnishings and features. Howard Fishman, Washington Post, 31 Aug. 2022 Stephen Reichard, once a handsome art dealer and consultant who liked to dress in sharp, expensive suits, is naked and skeletal from AIDS, a pieta on a hard wooden chair.New York Times, 4 May 2022 Begun a decade before the sculptor’s death, the piece originally featured the fallen Christ and the mourning Madonna as robust, supple figures, as in his most famous pieta, now at St. Peter’s Basilica. Michael J. Bailey, BostonGlobe.com, 18 June 2019 The last one, in particular, accompanies an emotionally powerful moment, and seeing this sort of negative image of a pieta could create something incredibly moving. Todd Vanderwerff, Vox, 1 Sep. 2018
Word History
Etymology
Italian, literally, pity, from Latin pietat-, pietas