“Stabat Mater Dolorosa
  Juxta crucem lachrymosa
  Dum pendebat filius.”

LA PIETA.  The third, and it is the most important and most beautiful of all as far as the Virgin is concerned, is the group called the PIETA, which, when strictly devotional, consists only of the Virgin with her dead Son in her arms, or on her lap, or lying at her feet; in some instances with lamenting angels, but no other personages.  This group has been varied in a thousand ways; no doubt the two most perfect conceptions are those of Michael Angelo and Raphael; the first excelling in sublimity, the latter in pathos.  The celebrated marble group by Michael Angelo stands in the Vatican in a chapel to the right as we enter.  The Virgin is seated; the dead Saviour lies across the knees of his mother; she looks down on him in mingled sorrow and resignation, but the majestic resignation predominates.  The composition of Raphael exists only as a print; but the flimsy paper, consecrated through its unspeakable beauty, is likely to be as lasting as the marble.  It represents the Virgin, standing with outstretched arms, and looking up with an appealing agonized expression towards heaven; before her, on the earth, lies extended the form of the Saviour.  In tenderness, dignity, simplicity, and tragic pathos, nothing can exceed this production; the head of the Virgin in particular is regarded as a masterpiece, so far exceeding in delicacy of execution every other work of Marc Antonio, that some have thought that Raphael himself took the burin from his hand, and touched himself that face of quiet woe.

Another example of wonderful beauty is the Pieta by Francia, in our National Gallery.  The form of Christ lies extended before his mother; a lamenting angel sustains the head, another is at the feet:  the Virgin, with eyes red and heavy with weeping, looks out of the picture.  There needs no visible sword in her bosom to tell what anguish has pierced that maternal heart.

There is another Pieta, by Michael Angelo, quite a different conception.  The Virgin sits at the foot of the cross; before her, and half-sustained by her knees, lies the form of the dead Saviour, seen in front; his arms are held up by two angels (unwinged, as is usual with Michael Angelo).  The Virgin looks up to heaven with an appealing expression; and in one engraving of this composition the cross is inscribed with the words, “Tu non pensi quanta sangue costa.”  There is no painting by Michael Angelo himself, but many copies and engravings of the drawing.  A beautiful small copy, by Marcello Venusti, is in the Queen’s Gallery.

There is yet another version of the Pieta, quite mystical and devotional in its significance,—­but, to my feeling, more painful and material than poetical.  It is variously treated; for example:—­1.  The dead Redeemer is seen half-length within the tomb; his hands are extended to show his wounds; his eyes are closed, his head declined, his bleeding brow encircled by thorns.  On one side is the Virgin, on the other St. John the Evangelist, in attitudes of profound grief and commiseration. 2.  The dead form, half emerging from the tomb, is sustained in the arms of the Mater Dolorosa.  St. John the Evangelist on the other side.  There are sometimes angels.