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Il Silenzio (The Madonna of the Silence), after Michelangelo
Il Silenzio (The Madonna of the Silence), after Michelangelo

Il Silenzio (The Madonna of the Silence), after Michelangelo

Primary (Bologna, Italy, circa 1510–Bologna or Rome, Italy, after 1576)
NationalityItalian, Europe
Date1561
MediumEngraving
DimensionsSheet: 15 13/16 × 10 9/16 in. (40.1 × 26.9 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, The Leo Steinberg Collection, 2002.1735
Keywords
Collection AreaPrints and Drawings
Object number2002.1735
On View
Not on view
Label Text
Joseph and a young Saint John watch as Christ sleeps, draped across his mother's lap in a position suggestive of the pietà. Traditionally, the pietà is a theme in which the grieving mother clutches the body of her dead son in her lap. Here, the familial scene alludes both to the hope of salvation and Christ’s sacrifice. Mary’s lap becomes an altar upon which the sacrifice is made.
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