DOI Heft:
No. 1-2
DOI Artikel:Dobrzeniecki, Tadeusz: Mediaeval sources of the Pietà
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17162#0030
in both literary and pictorial elaborations of the Crucifixion drama. But even then, as media*-
val authors explained, Mary contintted to be mater pulchrae dilectionis, Mother of Sweet Love.
Hanc pulchritudinem dilectionis - Engelbert of Admont ( •{* 1331) wrote, — Beata Virgo habuit
in summo erga suum filium: quia in passione filii simul habuit summum gaudium et exultationem
spiritualem de humani generis redemptione et summum dolorem et compassionem naturalem de
filii passione et morte.8A Only such an explication allows to understand the variant of the
so-called Joyful Pieta, known sińce the XIVth century, in which the Yirgin is smiling (fig. 14,15).8i
However, it was the sorrowful aspect of the event that arose much more interest and became pre-
dominant. In the Middie Ages the cult of the Sorrowful Virgin85 gradually increased sińce Mary
suffering Her highest sorrow — the summus dolor — was believed to confirm Herself as a true
mother, to quote here the words of Michael Francisci de Insulis: Alias non ostendisset se veram eius
matrem aut saltem contra maternalem naturam visa fuisset nullum aut parvum habere ad filium
dolorem. Quod absit ab ea. Cum scribatur Ysaie XLIX Nunąuit potest oblivisci mulier infantem
suum ut non misereatur filio uteri sui. Quasi diceret: non.8fi Ths Virgin-the most perfect mother -
never forgot Her Son nor ceased to mourn over His death. The variant of the Pieta with the
diminished body of Christ visualize3 this miternal love and meniory. 87 It is MDth.3r's retrospsc-
tion, back to the Infancy of, now offered, Jesus.88
On the basis of literary materiał here disscussed, the ideological content of the Pieta may be
precised in the following way: it expresses the Soteriological Compassio of Maria-Corredemptrix
realized by way of Her sacrifice.83
The two essential components of the Pieta—the historical and the dogmatic one—were noticed
by an Italian writer of the XVIth century Luca Pinelli: Historia de Maria ąuando Christum
iam mortuum in sinum suum deposuit. Deniąue ad uesperam sextae feriae... corpus Christi extractis
clauis de cruce depositam pia mater brachiis suis excepit religiose amplexa est et venerate, crebriusąue
exoculans sacra vulnera, Patri aeterni in mundi salutem obtulit.90
83. "Tractatus de gratiis et virtutibus BV Mariae", cup. XIII, cd. B. Pez, Thesaurus anecdotorum novissimus, 1721, T. I,
pars I, p. 525.
84. An esample of this variant, from the Abbey of Ruggisberg, is reproduced in Reincrs-Ernst, op. cit., p. 1—4; Kali-
nowski, op. cit. fig. 11. Expositions du huitieme centenaire de la fondation Fribourg 1157—1957, Fribourg, 1957, N° 80
pl. IX; for another example of ca 1340 in Bamherg, Church of the Jcsuits, see H. Keller, Bamberg, 1956, fig. 40.
85. The sorrowful aspect of the Pieta was particularly stressed in the XIVth century, C. Gravenkamp, Marienklage. Das
deutsche Vesperbild im 14. und im fr ii hen 15. Jht., Aschaffcnburg, 1948, p. 31: Die Gruppe der Veste Coburg ist die
gewaltigste in der grossen Reihe dzr schmerzhaften Vesperbilder, welche das 14 Jht. zeitigte. The sculptors evidently shared
a contemporary opinion de modo plangendi Mariae, expressed by the writers, to quote herc the words of St. Vinccnt
Ferrer, loc. cit.: ...modum valde humanum mater uirgo adinvenit cum amarum dolorem in corde gustauerit nihil tamen
fedum aut indecens gessit ... dolor ... intra sue animc claustra detinebał ut nec minime impatientie aut inordinationis signo
exterius se proderet nisi in ąuantum lachrymarurn effhtxio oculi materni impetuosam anxietatcm indicabant.
86. Op. cit., fol. 5v: decimus cuinłus dolor,
87. Panofsky, Reint?gration... op. cit., p. 491, fn. 41: It is also interesting to note that in a Latin poem contemporary
with the earliest Pietas, the Vita Beatae Virginis Mariae rhylmica, the dead body of Christ is referred to as corpus-
culum: Sic filii corpusmlo mater incumbebat (v. 5976). Interpreting this word one should, however, take into conside-
ration the observations of E. Schróder, "Von der Vita BMariac Rhytmica", Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum...,
LXVIII, p. 243 — 248: Der Dichter macht einen ziemlich słarken Gebrauch von Diminutiven. The author counted about
sixteen diminutives with the corpusculum among Lhcm.
88. Godfrid of Admont 1165) wrote on the Yirgin^ joyful remembrance of the Infancy of Christ, when She was on
Calvary, see PL, CLXXIV, col 970.
89. Compassio solcriologica Virginis Corredemptricis per modum sacriftcii.
90. Meditationes devotissimae in vitam sacratissimae Virginis Mariae cum historia vitae eius ex veteribus S. Patribus desumpla,
Coloniae Agrippinac, 1593, p. 264 — 265. This opinion was to be shared by the influential Mariologists from the XVIth
century onward and mo ilded by them on the base of mediaeval concepts. The Pizta down to the XVIIIth century
is a subject of the vivid interest of artists as rightly stated T. Demmler in "Die mittelalterlichen Pieta-Gruppen
im K.-Fr.-Mus."t Berliner Museen, XLII, 1921, p. 121: Die Pieta bleibt bis ins XVIII. Jht. ein lebendiger, immer neu
empfundener, und tłarum auch immer neu gestalteter Vorwurf fiir die Bildnerei.
24
val authors explained, Mary contintted to be mater pulchrae dilectionis, Mother of Sweet Love.
Hanc pulchritudinem dilectionis - Engelbert of Admont ( •{* 1331) wrote, — Beata Virgo habuit
in summo erga suum filium: quia in passione filii simul habuit summum gaudium et exultationem
spiritualem de humani generis redemptione et summum dolorem et compassionem naturalem de
filii passione et morte.8A Only such an explication allows to understand the variant of the
so-called Joyful Pieta, known sińce the XIVth century, in which the Yirgin is smiling (fig. 14,15).8i
However, it was the sorrowful aspect of the event that arose much more interest and became pre-
dominant. In the Middie Ages the cult of the Sorrowful Virgin85 gradually increased sińce Mary
suffering Her highest sorrow — the summus dolor — was believed to confirm Herself as a true
mother, to quote here the words of Michael Francisci de Insulis: Alias non ostendisset se veram eius
matrem aut saltem contra maternalem naturam visa fuisset nullum aut parvum habere ad filium
dolorem. Quod absit ab ea. Cum scribatur Ysaie XLIX Nunąuit potest oblivisci mulier infantem
suum ut non misereatur filio uteri sui. Quasi diceret: non.8fi Ths Virgin-the most perfect mother -
never forgot Her Son nor ceased to mourn over His death. The variant of the Pieta with the
diminished body of Christ visualize3 this miternal love and meniory. 87 It is MDth.3r's retrospsc-
tion, back to the Infancy of, now offered, Jesus.88
On the basis of literary materiał here disscussed, the ideological content of the Pieta may be
precised in the following way: it expresses the Soteriological Compassio of Maria-Corredemptrix
realized by way of Her sacrifice.83
The two essential components of the Pieta—the historical and the dogmatic one—were noticed
by an Italian writer of the XVIth century Luca Pinelli: Historia de Maria ąuando Christum
iam mortuum in sinum suum deposuit. Deniąue ad uesperam sextae feriae... corpus Christi extractis
clauis de cruce depositam pia mater brachiis suis excepit religiose amplexa est et venerate, crebriusąue
exoculans sacra vulnera, Patri aeterni in mundi salutem obtulit.90
83. "Tractatus de gratiis et virtutibus BV Mariae", cup. XIII, cd. B. Pez, Thesaurus anecdotorum novissimus, 1721, T. I,
pars I, p. 525.
84. An esample of this variant, from the Abbey of Ruggisberg, is reproduced in Reincrs-Ernst, op. cit., p. 1—4; Kali-
nowski, op. cit. fig. 11. Expositions du huitieme centenaire de la fondation Fribourg 1157—1957, Fribourg, 1957, N° 80
pl. IX; for another example of ca 1340 in Bamherg, Church of the Jcsuits, see H. Keller, Bamberg, 1956, fig. 40.
85. The sorrowful aspect of the Pieta was particularly stressed in the XIVth century, C. Gravenkamp, Marienklage. Das
deutsche Vesperbild im 14. und im fr ii hen 15. Jht., Aschaffcnburg, 1948, p. 31: Die Gruppe der Veste Coburg ist die
gewaltigste in der grossen Reihe dzr schmerzhaften Vesperbilder, welche das 14 Jht. zeitigte. The sculptors evidently shared
a contemporary opinion de modo plangendi Mariae, expressed by the writers, to quote herc the words of St. Vinccnt
Ferrer, loc. cit.: ...modum valde humanum mater uirgo adinvenit cum amarum dolorem in corde gustauerit nihil tamen
fedum aut indecens gessit ... dolor ... intra sue animc claustra detinebał ut nec minime impatientie aut inordinationis signo
exterius se proderet nisi in ąuantum lachrymarurn effhtxio oculi materni impetuosam anxietatcm indicabant.
86. Op. cit., fol. 5v: decimus cuinłus dolor,
87. Panofsky, Reint?gration... op. cit., p. 491, fn. 41: It is also interesting to note that in a Latin poem contemporary
with the earliest Pietas, the Vita Beatae Virginis Mariae rhylmica, the dead body of Christ is referred to as corpus-
culum: Sic filii corpusmlo mater incumbebat (v. 5976). Interpreting this word one should, however, take into conside-
ration the observations of E. Schróder, "Von der Vita BMariac Rhytmica", Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum...,
LXVIII, p. 243 — 248: Der Dichter macht einen ziemlich słarken Gebrauch von Diminutiven. The author counted about
sixteen diminutives with the corpusculum among Lhcm.
88. Godfrid of Admont 1165) wrote on the Yirgin^ joyful remembrance of the Infancy of Christ, when She was on
Calvary, see PL, CLXXIV, col 970.
89. Compassio solcriologica Virginis Corredemptricis per modum sacriftcii.
90. Meditationes devotissimae in vitam sacratissimae Virginis Mariae cum historia vitae eius ex veteribus S. Patribus desumpla,
Coloniae Agrippinac, 1593, p. 264 — 265. This opinion was to be shared by the influential Mariologists from the XVIth
century onward and mo ilded by them on the base of mediaeval concepts. The Pizta down to the XVIIIth century
is a subject of the vivid interest of artists as rightly stated T. Demmler in "Die mittelalterlichen Pieta-Gruppen
im K.-Fr.-Mus."t Berliner Museen, XLII, 1921, p. 121: Die Pieta bleibt bis ins XVIII. Jht. ein lebendiger, immer neu
empfundener, und tłarum auch immer neu gestalteter Vorwurf fiir die Bildnerei.
24