pietà

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See also: pieta, Pietà, pietä, and pięta

English[edit]

The western gate of the church of Maria am Gestade, Vienna, featuring a mosaic pietà

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Italian pietà. Doublet of piety, and pity.

Noun[edit]

pietà (plural pietàs)

  1. A sculpture or painting of the Virgin Mary holding and mourning the dead body of Jesus.
    • 1998, David Adams, “Afterword: The Artistic Alchemy of Joseph Beuys”, in Thomas Braatz, transl., Bees, Rudolf Steiner, page 195:
      Whereas Beuys's early sculptural work was consciously formed within a modernized version of the stylized Romanesque tradition of art, frequently with a Christian content such as crucifixions or pietàs, he gradually was able to free himself from this more traditional approach.
    • 2009, Pico Iyer, “5: Making Kindness Stand to Reason”, in Rajiv Mehrotra, editor, Understanding the Dalai Lama, page 61:
      Ceremonial masks, Hindu deities, and pietàs shine down on you.
    • 2011, Caroline van Eck, Stijn Bussels, Theatricality in Early Modern Art and Architecture, page 10:
      It does not show the events it depicts as static, frozen in the eternal present of historia sacra in the way many late medieval crucifixions, pietàs or annunciations do, but as a narrative.

See also[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Italian[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Old Italian pietade, pietate, from Latin pietātem (piety”, “pity). By surface analysis, pio (pious) +‎ -età (-ity).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /pjeˈta/*
  • Rhymes: -a
  • Hyphenation: pie‧tà

Noun[edit]

pietà f (invariable)

  1. pity, compassion, godliness
  2. piety
  3. (art) pietà

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]