Pietà Plagiarism/Art

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Examples of Pietà Plagiarism in Art include:

• The Pietà was already a long-established representation of the sorrowful Virgin Mary by the time Michelangelo started work on his first one. It first arose in Germany, where the form is known as Vesperbild ("vespers image", because it portrays a moment after the crucifixion, around the time of evening prayers on Good Friday), and spread to Italy from there. The oldest surviving Pietàs date back to the early 1300s, over 150 years before Michelangelo was born.
  • Some ancient sculptures and paintings depicting scenes from pre-Christian mythology also have Pietà-like configuration, e. g. Niobe holding the body of one of her children, Eos (Dawn) with that of her son Memnon etc.
• While it lacks the Mary figure, David's Death of Marat has the subject mimicking Jesus' pose.
  • Although that portrait supposedly was taken from life, er death.
• An even closer version is this image of the death of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, from 1851.
• Lego Tragedy
• Even Robert Downey Jr. partakes in a little plagiarism.

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