Pieta with Angels Bearing the Instruments of the Passion, ca. 1540 - 1545

Label: Formerly attributed to artists active in the Southern Netherlands and in Spain, this altarpiece is now known to be the work of Diogo de Contreiras, an important Portuguese Renaissance painter. Scenes of the Virgin Mary lamenting the death of her son Jesus became especially popular in Catholic communities following the Reformation, when debates over the nature of the Eucharist and its relationship to the sacrificial death of Christ’s human body became most intense. Contreiras’s expressive brushwork conveys the scene’s high drama, and his rendering of the Dead Christ’s wounds with translucent layers of oil paint articulate the bruised and pierced flesh to harrowing effect. Exhibition label from "The Big 4-0: New Views of the Collection," 2024.

Exhibition History: Old Master Paintings from the Haggerty, Haggerty Museum of Art, 01/27/2010 - 04/18/2010 The Sacred Made Real, Haggerty Museum of Art, 06/22/2011 - 05/20/2012 Images of the Virgin Mary, Haggerty Museum of Art, 01/16/2013 - 07/28/2013 Re-seeing the Permanent Collection: the Viewer's Voice, Haggerty Museum of Art, 08/21/2013 - 12/22/2013 What is Hispanic? | ¿Qué es hispánico?, Haggerty Museum of Art, 08/19/2015 - 12/20/2015 Art Asks - You Answer, Haggerty Museum of Art, 01/14/2022 - 05/22/2022 The Big 4-0: New Views of the Collection, Haggerty Museum of Art, 08/23/2024 - 12/22/2024

Publication History: John Pick, Marquette University Art Collection (Milwaukee: The University Committee on the Fine Arts, 1964). Raul Sampaio Lopes, "Une peinture portugaise de XVI siecle par Diogo de Contreiras (actif entre 1521 et 1562) ou son atelier au Haggerty Museum of Art de l'universite Marquette, a Milwaukee, dans le Wisconsin (Estats-Unis) " Artis - Revista Do Instituto de Historia da arte da Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa, no. 9-10 (2010-2011): 187. Re-Seeing the Permanent Collection: the Viewer's Voice (Milwaukee: Haggerty Musuem of Art, 2013).