German mystics imagined the Virgin Mary was holding Christ as a baby when he died

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Pietà (Vesperbild) | German | The Cloisters - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This German "Pietà (Vesperbild)" depicts the Virgin mourning over her son. This is only one in a series of Pietà's in the collection of the Metroplitcan Museum of Art. This depiction became a popular devotional subject in the later Middle Ages. Rigid in death, Christ's body bears the marks of his Passion. His small scale may reflect the writings of German mystics, who believed that the Virgin, in the agony of her grief, imagined she was holding Christ as a baby once again in her arms. On view at The Met Cloisters in Gallery 16 [More]