The Pietà (recto)

Ludovico called Cigoli Cardi

1586

graphite

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Renaissance Renaissance lamentation of christ

About this work

A woman cradles a dead man across her lap, her face tilted down in grief. The drawing is made of quick, dark lines—brown ink on paper—with faint red chalk grids over it. This sketch was a study for a larger painting, so the artist could work out the poses before committing to color. The squared grid, called "squaring," let him copy the design at a bigger size without losing the proportions. You can still see the light pencil marks where he planned the folds of the fabric. Look up the technique called cross-hatching to see how other artists built shadows with layers of lines.