The Florentine painter Perin del Vaga (1501-1547), properly called Pietro Bonaccorsi, executed this fresco for a noble lady in the church of Santo Stefano del Cacco in 1519. It depicts the Virgin Mary with her dead Son Jesus Christ on her lap. This motif is commonly known as the Pietà. Of all the existing works of the artist this Pietà is his first independent commission. Later, this fresco was painted over with a larger one, which in the background showed the Golgotha. The remainder of this larger fresco can still partly be seen beside the Pietà of Perin del Vaga. Unfortunately both frescoes are in a poor state of preservation.

The painting, which is executed with great skilfulness, shows the dead Christ lying on the lap of his Mother, while St. John the Evangelist supports Christ's right side and St. Mary Magdalen kisses His left hand. Behind them an old man, vested in yellow, is standing holding the Nails of the Cross and the Crown of Thorns, two instruments of the Passion, in his hands. The female figure on the lower left looking at the holy scene is probably the noble lady, who commissioned the fresco.