Ernst, Max (1891-1976)
Pietà ou La révolution la nuit (Pietà or Revolution by Night)
1923
Oil on canvas, 116.2 × 88.9 cm
Tate Britain, London
Ernst was a surrealist artist. Inspired by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s (1856–1939) theory of the unconscious, surrealism used irrational images to portray the working of the human mind. Here Ernst replaces the popular Renaissance scene of Madonna cradling the body of Christ (known as Pietà) with an image of the artist himself, held by his father. Ernst paints his father following the traditional iconography of the Madonna, Mother of Christ. He subverts the original scene, showing instead a father figure in a caring role traditionally associated with women and mothers. (Tate)
See also:
• Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939)