  The gravitational form factor of the pion is evaluated in two chiral quark
models and confronted to the recent full-QCD lattice data. We find good
agreement for the case of the Spectral Quark Model, which builds in the
vector-meson dominance for the charge form factor. We derive a simple relation
between the gravitational and electromagnetic form factors, holding in the
considered quark models in the chiral limit. The relation implies that the
gravitational mean squared radius is half the electromagnetic one. We also
analyze higher-order quark generalized form factors of the pion, related to
higher moments in the symmetric Bjorken X-variable of the generalized parton
distribution functions, and discuss their perturbative QCD evolution, needed to
relate the quark-model predictions to the lattice data. The values of the
higher-order quark form factors at t=0, computed on the lattice, also agree
with our quark model results within the statistical and method uncertainties.
