Important Notice

Krishen Khanna's Pieta is his distinct interpretation of an iconic image from Christianity, which has been portrayed by artists all over the world for centuries. The seated Mother Mary cradling the exhausted Christ after his descent from the cross is an image Khanna returns to several times during his career. "The Pieta paintings relate to his concern with the subject of the dead and the dying, as much as with the persecuted figure of the... Krishen Khanna's Pieta is his distinct interpretation of an iconic image from Christianity, which has been portrayed by artists all over the world for centuries. The seated Mother Mary cradling the exhausted Christ after his descent from the cross is an image Khanna returns to several times during his career. "The Pieta paintings relate to his concern with the subject of the dead and the dying, as much as with the persecuted figure of the Christ ... The Pieta is among the few maternal figures in Khanna's oeuvre, and his interpretation of the figure varies in its palette, as well as the reworking of the pyramidal structure." (Gayatri Sinha, Krishen Khanna: The Embrace of Love, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 2005, p. 25) Mary's hand to the head is a uniquely Indian gesture of grief and desperation. It contrasts with the stoic Mary in western interpretations. The stark cross in the background adds to the gravitas of the scene.

Khanna's enduring interest in religious symbolism, particularly Christian imagery, is rooted in a childhood of summers spent at a vicarage in war-torn England, and developed by a print of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, given to him by his father. During the late 1960s, Khanna worked on a series of paintings of Christ, from The Last Supper, to Christ's Descent from the Cross. "Khanna's engagement with biblical allegory and Hindu myth has served as his instrument of engagement during troubled periods in Indian polity." (Sinha, p. 17)

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