Pietà

Sebastiano del Piombo's Pietà from around 1516, created for the Museo Civico in Viterbo, belongs to the series of devotional paintings he produced in collaboration with Michelangelo's designs — the older artist providing drawings that Sebastiano translated into painted form. The Pietà was a subject central to Christian devotion, and Sebastiano's version combines Michelangelo's sculptural conception of the dead Christ with his own Venetian sensibility for color, atmospheric light, and landscape setting. The collaboration with Michelangelo was one of the most productive artistic partnerships of the High Renaissance, and the Viterbo Pietà is one of its most powerful results.

The monumental, sculptural forms reflect Michelangelo's influence while Sebastiano's Venetian training emerges in the rich, deep coloring and atmospheric landscape backdrop.