Pieta with Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea

Pietro Perugino painted this Pietà with Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea around 1495, now at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts — one of the American museum's most important Italian Renaissance acquisitions. The Pietà, the mourning Virgin holding the dead Christ, was one of the most emotionally charged subjects in Christian art, and the addition of the two secret disciples who provided the tomb creates a fuller narrative context. Perugino's treatment employs his characteristic luminous landscape setting and dignified figure arrangement, giving even this scene of grief a quality of serene acceptance rather than dramatic anguish. The Clark provenance reflects Robert Sterling Clark's focused collecting of Italian Renaissance and Impressionist masterworks that made his institution one of the great American regional museums.

Oil on panel with Perugino's characteristic soft modeling, balanced composition, and luminous Umbrian landscape. The work demonstrates the artistic qualities characteristic of Pietro Perugino's mature period.