Pietà

The muscular, lifeless body of Christ is draped across the Virgin's lap, his wounds and the texture of his skin rendered with precise hatched lines. Mary is framed by a massive, radiating sunburst that illuminates the dark, rocky setting. At the bottom of the composition, the crown of thorns and the three nails of the crucifixion lie on the ground next to a stone tablet bearing the artist's monogram.

Produced as part of a series imitating the style of Albrecht Dürer, this engraving demonstrates the Mannerist concept of 'mimesis' and the artist's role in reviving the 'Golden Age' of Northern art. The imagery of the Sun of Righteousness and the stark physical cooling of the body align with late 16th-century spiritual meditations on the purification of the soul through the 'mortification' of the flesh.