The Pietà, in which the body of Christ is presented to the world by his mother, the Virgin Mary, is one of the especially moving forms of depiction in art. Here, it is expanded into a Lamentation scene through St John and the mourning female figure. The body, marked by the agonies of the Crucifixion, awakens compassion in the viewer—thoroughly in keeping with the Counter-Reformation that urged the faithful to grasp the suffering of Christ more intensely. The attribution of the work to Van Dyck is disputed; an attribution to the circle of Rubens has recently been proposed.