Angel Pietà

The modern term “angel pietà” signifies a scene in which the dead Christ is raised from the tomb by an angel. The source of the image, one of the most affecting of all late medieval inventions, can be unambiguously traced to the Eucharist. During the consecration, the priest speaks the words: “May this offering be borne by the hand of your angel to your highest altar.” These words undoubtedly gave substantial support to the emergence of the angel pietà. The visual field is framed by a leafy staff, with a second framing given by the all-enfolding wings of the angel, whose covered hands are carefully lifting the rigid corpse. The rendering articulates the polarity of life and death, contrasting the rosy cheeks of the grieving angel with the bony body of the dead Christ. Suffering, death and redemption are the themes made manifest in this small work. The Berlin angel pietà may originally have been a private votive image, though it may conceivably have had a place in some larger context in a church interior.