Pietà

Hubert Gerhard Netherlandish

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 520

This work depicts the continued suffering of Christ after his death through Mary’s grief. It was likely damaged intentionally by an iconoclast. The sculpture was never melted down, despite Christ’s broken arm and the value of bronze as a raw material, presumably because of Gerhard’s innovative bronze casting methods and workmanship. The beauty of his compositions and quality of his sculpting attracted powerful patrons, including the Fugger family of wealthy Augsburg merchants and Archduke Maximilian III in Innsbruck.

Pietà, Hubert Gerhard (Netherlandish, 1540/50–1621, active Germany), Bronze, German

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Pietà, Hubert Gerhard (Netherlandish, 1540/50–1621, active Germany), Bronze, German
Pietà, Hubert Gerhard (Netherlandish, 1540/50–1621, active Germany), Bronze, German
Pietà, Hubert Gerhard (Netherlandish, 1540/50–1621, active Germany), Bronze, German

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