Koronacja marii enguerrand quarton biography

When artists create images of the Pieta, they know they are taking on one of the most widely represented motifs in all of Christian art.

Already by the end of the medieval period, the lamenting Mary, cradling the body of her son Jesus at the foot of the cross, had been depicted by so many artists in so many different variations it took a painter of rare talent (and inspiration) to come up with something so startling and new it would redefine established iconography of the scene.

Koronacja marii enguerrand quarton biography

Fifteenth Century French Painter Enguerrand Quarton did precisely this in his magnificent Pieta de Villeneuve-les-Avignon.

The origins of the wood panel painting are unknown, as is the identity of the cleric in white surplice who commissioned the work, seen kneeling to the left of John, the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdelene.

In fact, it has only been in recent years that the painting was even attributed to Quarton. Found in a remote chapel in Villeneuve-les Avignon in the Provence reg