Pietà or Revolution by Night

Pietà or Revolution by Night (Pietà ou La révolution la nuit) (1923) is a painting by German surrealist and Dadaist Max Ernst. The painting is interpreted as symbolic of the turbulent relationship between the artist and his father, an amateur painter and staunch Catholic. In the painting, Ernst replaces the classic image of the Virgin Mary holding the crucified body of Jesus (pietà) with his father as Mary and the artist himself as Jesus. The expressions on both faces are blank as though in a state of sleepwalking. In the background drawn on a wall is a man with a bandaged head descending a flight of stairs. A profile on the work in the British newspaper The Guardian indicates the figure could represent either Sigmund Freud or the...