Pieta 

Jacob Jordaens painted this Pieta in oil on canvas some time in the 17th century. The scene, of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of Christ, was of course a familiar one in the Catholic countries of Europe. Jordaens was Flemish, and while his style shared some of the dramatic energy of his contemporary Rubens, he worked in a more vernacular mode, bringing religious scenes down to earth. What were the social conditions that shaped this moving image? Well, Flanders was then under Spanish Habsburg rule, and the Catholic church was determined to use art as propaganda, to move the faithful and inspire piety. But the artist has placed the holy figures among more ordinary-looking folk, and he’s used a relatively muted palette. This was a society where the church was a powerful institution, but its leaders were increasingly challenged from below. Understanding the social context, the politics of imagery, helps us to appreciate the nuances of an artwork like this. To learn more, you could start by looking at the archival records of the Catholic Church in Flanders.