Pieta (The Dead Christ Mourned by Nicodemus and Two Angels) 1500

Filippino Lippi painted this moving depiction of the dead Christ mourned by Nicodemus and angels sometime in the late 15th or early 16th century. The image is filled with familiar visual and cultural codes, especially the visual language of Renaissance Florence. Lippi clearly borrows from the established compositions of earlier artists in his artistic lineage. These scenes of lamentation were especially popular devotional images and can be understood as having deep roots in the Catholic Church’s institutional history. Lippi’s image can be seen as either conservative or progressive depending on one’s perspective. By looking back to earlier artistic styles he appears conservative. But by injecting a naturalistic style and infusing the subjects with emotion he is progressive for his time. Art historians rely on many kinds of documentation and research including studies of patronage, records of the art market, and period religious writings to understand art in its proper context. Only then can we appreciate the full meaning of art as something contingent on socio-historical circumstances.