It would be quite impossible to describe the beauty of style displayed in this group, or the sublime emotions expressed in those woe-stricken countenances.

I am confident that the Pieta is one of his rarest and most difficult masterpieces; particularly because the figures are kept apart distinctly, nor does the drapery of the one intermingle with that of the others." This panegyric is by no means pitched too high.

Justice has hardly been done in recent times to the noble conception, the intense feeling, and the broad manner of this Deposition.

That may be due in part to the dull twilight in which the group is plunged, depriving all its lines of salience and relief.

It is also true that in certain respects the composition is fairly open to adverse criticism.