place

Pietà (Meštrović)

1942 establishments in Indiana1942 sculpturesCroatian artMarble sculptures in IndianaSculptures by Ivan Meštrović
University of Notre Dame
Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Notre Dame, Indiana) interior, the Ivan Mestrovic Pieta (1942) made of Carara marble (cropped)
Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Notre Dame, Indiana) interior, the Ivan Mestrovic Pieta (1942) made of Carara marble (cropped)

The Pietà (1942 - 1946) is a marble statue by Croatian artist Ivan Meštrović housed in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. It is considered one of his most celebrated works. Meštrović conceived the work while imprisoned in Zagreb by the Ustaše and then sculpted it in Rome from a six ton block of Carrara marble. It is hence also known as Roman Pieta (Croatian: Rimska Pietà). Meštrović also made several copies of the work which are now held at the Ivan Meštrović Gallery, Vatican Museums, and Pontifical Croatian College. Meštrović brought the sculpture to America when he emigrated in 1946. The Pieta was housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City from 1947 to 1955, as part of an exhibit dedicated to Meštrović, the museum's first ever solo exhibition of a living artist. Meštrović refused the Yugoslav's government offer to buy the statue, and instead opted to bring it to the University of Notre Dame in 1955, where it was placed in the Church of the Sacred Heart. The statue represents the Pietà, a subject in Christian art depicting the Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus after his descent from the Cross, and is intended to embody the suffering of all of humanity.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Pietà (Meštrović) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Pietà (Meštrović)
Corby Drive,

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Pietà (Meštrović)Continue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 41.7026 ° E -86.2397 °
placeShow on map

Address

Basilica of the Sacred Heart

Corby Drive
46556
Indiana, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Notre Dame, Indiana) interior, the Ivan Mestrovic Pieta (1942) made of Carara marble (cropped)
Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Notre Dame, Indiana) interior, the Ivan Mestrovic Pieta (1942) made of Carara marble (cropped)
Share experience

Nearby Places

Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, Notre Dame
Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, Notre Dame

The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes is located at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States, and is a reproduction of the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France. The current Grotto was built in 1896, replacing a wooden grotto built on August 22, 1878. An artificial rock cave, the Grotto is used by its visitors as a sacred space for prayer, meditation, and outdoor Mass. Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., the French Holy Cross priest who founded the University of Notre Dame in 1842 on a tract of land in Northern Indiana, had a lifelong devotion to Mary. He named several structures on the nascent campus after the Blessed Virgin Mary, and, seeking to attract Catholic pilgrims to Notre Dame, he constructed a replica of the Portiuncula—a Marian chapel located in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi. After a trip to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1873, Sorin sought to create a replica of the Lourdes Grotto at the university's campus; the replica of the Grotto was constructed beginning in the spring of 1878 and was completed by the end of summertime. The replica was a wooden structure that sat atop a small rock wall, complete with several religious statues, and adjacent to the Church of the Sacred Heart. Less than three years after Sorin's death in 1893, a replacement for this first Grotto was announced. The construction of the current Grotto began in the spring of 1896. Unlike the first replica, the current Grotto took the form of a rock cave, located downhill from the church rather than adjacent to it. Thomas Carroll, a Catholic priest, funded the construction, and the construction was overseen by local contractor John Gill. A natural spring was discovered during the construction of the Grotto, and the Grotto collapsed during construction. Construction was completed on August 5, and the Grotto was dedicated on Our Lady of Snows. Subsequent renovations have taken place, including one to fix a leak in the Grotto's ceiling and remediation following a large fire in 1985 that caused damage to the rocks composing the Grotto. A more recent renovation, in 2019, substantially re-landscaped the Grotto and involved restoration work on the statues present at the Grotto.