Vesperbild (Pietà)

Also known as: Pietà

About the Artwork

Depicting the Virgin cradling Christ’s dead body, works like this one were known in German as vesperbilds, owing to their incorporation into the liturgy of the evening prayer (vespers) on Good Friday. The word pietà—from the Latin pietas, meaning "piety" or "compassion"—was also used to describe such works. Like other devotional image types that emerged in southern Germany in the later medieval period, vesperbilds encouraged viewers to contemplate Christ’s suffering and empathize with the Virgin’s sorrows more directly and emotively than ever before. This anonymous German artist is named after one of his most important works, the high altar of the church of Rabenden in the Chiemgau, the foothills of the Alps. The sculpture was likely placed in a secondary chapel in a Bavarian church.

Provenance

Georg Schuster Collection, Munich, Germany; (Julius Böhler, Munich, Germany).

Exhibition history

Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA (October 30, 2007-January 20, 2008).

Quick Overview

Artist: Master of Rabenden (German)
Date: c. 1515–20
Medium: lindenwood, polychromed and gilded
Dimensions: Overall: 89.1 x 78.7 x 32.4 cm (35 1/16 x 31 x 12 3/4 in.)
Type: Sculpture
Classification: Sculpture
Department: Medieval Art
Credit line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession no.: 1938.294

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.