Cleveland Museum of Art

Figure of the Pietà

Joseph Willems

Date

c. 1761

Medium

Soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels

Culture

England, London, Chelsea

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The distinctively Roman Catholic subject of Mary cradling her son, the crucified Christ, suggests this figure was probably made for one of the aristocratic English families forced to practice their Catholicism in secret during the mid-1700s. Because of the laws banning Catholic worship in England, grand houses were often modified to include private chapels or rooms in private quarters where visiting priests delivered the sacraments in defiance of the laws favoring Protestant worship. A figure of this size and type likely would have served as an important devotional focal point within that context. Only three examples of this figure by the Chelsea Porcelain Factory are known to exist.

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