14th Century Fine Pieta In Carved Walnut

The compact composition of figures and tender emotion expressed here is reflective of the best of late Medieval sculpture and datable to the late 1300's-early 1400's likely carved by a gifted sculptor in the Rhine Valley region of Germany. The sculptor has conflated the Pieta-with Christ depicted on Mary's lap-yet she also sits on her Sedes Sapientiae throne where she had held him as a child in sculptural tableaus yet the male figure on her left can be seen still poignantly removing Christ's arm from the cross indicating that this is also in subject a Descent from the Cross.