piéta , attributed. to Charles Mellin (1602- 1649)

In this deeply moving work, Charles Mellin offers a modern interpretation of the Pietà. We are witnessing the moment when Mary, alone, gazes upon her son’s body for the first time. The scene is bathed in half-light; there are no objects, no artifice—only a mother gracefully holding her son in a final farewell. A light falls upon Mary’s face and the body of Christ; an exceptional intensity emerges from this scene due to the effect of the prism chosen by the artist.
Born in Lorraine, just like Georges de la Tour (1593–1652)—though the two artists never met—they would follow similar paths. While little is known about their early lives and training, they left the region drawn by a fascination with Italian painting and thanks to the French painters already established there, led by Nicolas Poussin and Claude Gellée…
He worked with Claude Gellée, known as Le Lorrain, but above all with Simon Vouet (1590–1649), becoming one of his collaborators and friends (source: Philippe de Magouyres, *Charles Mellin et Giovanni Lanfranco l’émilien*); when Simon Vouet returned to France in 1627, Charles Mellin settled in Rome and received numerous commissions, including several from Pope Urban VIII.
He died relatively young in 1649 at the height of his fame.
Although well-known, cited in the writings of the time, and featured in engravings, his name fell into obscurity, much like Georges de La Tour; it was not until the 1950s that they regained their rightful place in French painting. In 2007, during a remarkable retrospective of Charles Mellin’s work at the museums in Nancy and Caen.
His works are held in the following museums:
Louvre Museum, Paris; Caen; Nantes; Rome National Gallery; Geneva.
Dimensions with frame: 123 cm x 95 cm
Dimensions without frame: 105 cm x 77.