The Pietà in Jacob Steinhardt’s Early Œuvre

Abstract

Abstract This essay explores the Pietàs by Jacob Steinhardt, an Eastern-European Jewish artist, in connection with his involvement in the Pathetiker movement. The paper proceeds to examine them against the backdrop of German and Austrian Expressionist movements, as well as other treatments of the theme by Jewish artists. Through stylistic and iconographic analysis of Steinhardt’s Pietàs, Czekanowska-Gutman demonstrates that both of the works in question are in fact revisions of one of the most important Christian iconographic “framing themes,” which Steinhardt situates within the Jewish context and perspective. The central argument of the paper is that Steinhardt’s Pietàs address Christian audiences in their own representational conventions in order to denounce anti-Jewish violence, such as the pogroms of the time. The artist achieves this through the portrayal of Jesus and Mary as elderly Eastern European Jews (Ostjuden), using—remarkably—the visual language of anti-Jewish caricature. Finally, the paper investigates Steinhardt’s masterful use of drypoint and woodcutting techniques to visualise the suffering of Mary and her dying son.