Pietà

1929

Pietà, 1929. Wiktorya J. Gorynska (Polish, 1902–1945). Wood engraving; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm L. McBride 1935.125 Twentieth-century artists, particularly those seeking to express religious feeling, often turned to Renaissance works of art as models. Although in reverse, the composition of this 20th-century pietà bears strong resemblance to Michelangelo’s 1498 sculpture. Both compositions are deeply mournful, capturing the sorrow of the mother's loss of her child, even while Wiktorya Gorynska’s print displays aspects of modern art such as flattened space and simplified, abstract forms. Gorynska added unique elements, such as the striped shroud and the kneeling figure of Saint John the Evangelist at left.