Figure of the Pietà (c. 1761): Art, History and Details

Figure of the Pietà (c. 1761) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Joseph Willems (Flemish, 1715–1766); Chelsea Porcelain Factory (Britain, London, 1745–84).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Figure of the Pietà
• Date: c. 1761
• Creator attribution: Joseph Willems (Flemish, 1715–1766); Chelsea Porcelain Factory (Britain, London, 1745–84)
• Culture: England, London, Chelsea
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels
• Dimensions: height: 38.5 cm (15 3/16 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 2019.75

A detail from the museum

Only three examples of this figure by the Chelsea Porcelain Factory are known to exist.

Collection credit

Museum purchase from various donors by exchange

Further reading listed by the museum

• Mathew Martin, “The Chelsea Pietà,” in Fire and Form: The Baroque and Influence on English Ceramics, c. 1600-c. 1760 (London: English Ceramic Circle, 2013)
• Harrison, Stephen. “Acquisitions 2019: Decorative Art and Design.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 2 (March/April 2020): 27.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.