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23c The Virgin of Pity or pieta is a subject not found in the Biblical text.  The Gospel describes Joseph of Aramathea demanding Christ’s body and arranging for burial, and adds laconically “the women . . . .saw the sepulcher, and how his body was laid.” (Luke 23:55).  With the growth of lay devotion in the latter Middle Ages, the faithful demanded a more personalized means of evoking Christ’s family, in particular his relationship to his mother.  Mary, suffering as she witnessed her son beaten, mocked, and finally put to death, became the Mother of Sorrows, the female complement to Christ as the Man of Sorrows.  The image of the Virgin holding Christ’s body became one of the most popular visual motifs in the 15th century.  Its juxtaposition to the image of the Virgin holding her infant son on her lap, constructed an opening and closure to the Christian epic of human redemption through a God made flesh.  Margery Kempe mentions images of the Virgin of Pity as a pieta (Ch. 60) as well as frequently calling upon Mary to show sympathy for the Virgin’s suffering (Ch. 80 & 81).  See another image (stained glass detail) of the Virgin holding her son.