A devotional image of the Virgin Mary mourning and supporting the dead body of Christ after the Crucifixion.
A Pietà represents the Virgin Mary with the dead body of Christ after the Crucifixion. It is a devotional subject rather than a literal scene described in the Gospels and became one of the most powerful themes of late medieval and Renaissance sculpture.
Etymology
From Italian pietà, “pity, compassion, piety,” from Latin pietas.
Sculptor Notes
The subject demands a compositional solution to a severe physical problem: an adult male body must be supported by another figure without destroying the pyramidal unity of the group. Michelangelo's Vatican Pietà solves this by enlarging and spreading Mary's drapery so that the two bodies become one coherent mass.
References
https://www.nga.gov/artworks/41592-pieta; https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/the-crucifixion-and-passion-of-christ-in-italian-painting