CHARONTON, Enguerrand
(b. ca. 1410, Laon, d. ca. 1466, Avignon)

Pietà de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (detail)

c. 1460
Tempera on wood
Musée du Louvre, Paris

The detail shows the head of Christ.

The whole tragedy of this picture is concentrated in the figure of Christ. The beard and moustache are dark, the lips half open, the eyes closed; and the dead head compels the spectator's attention through its very poignancy.