MORALES, Luis de
(b. ca. 1520, Badajoz, d. 1586, Badajoz)

Pietà

1560s
Oil on panel, 126 x 98 cm
Real Academia de Bellas Artes, Madrid

Most of Morales's clientele preferred simplified compositions comprising a few figures, dramatically illuminated and posed against a dark or neutral background, the purpose of which was to arouse feelings of tragedy in the viewers and even move them to tears. This Pietà, which came from the Jesuit church in Córdoba, is an example of this type of compositions.