Michelangelo, Pietà

Michelangelo’s major early work at the turn of the century was a marble sculpture of the Pieta, commissioned by a French cardinal and installed as a tomb monument in Old St. Peter’s. The theme of the pietà (in which the Virgin supports and mourns the dead Jesus in her lap), long popular in northern Europe, was an unusual theme in Italy at the time. Michelangelo traveled to the marble quarries at Carrara in central Italy to select the block from which to make this large work, a practice he was to continue for nearly all of his sculpture. The choice of stone was important to him because he envisioned his sculpture as already existing within the marble needing only his tools to set it free.

Michelangelo’s Virgin is a young woman of heroic stature holding the unnaturally smaller, lifeless body of her grown son. Inconsistencies of scale and age are forgotten, however, when contemplating the sweetness of expression, technical virtuosity of the carving, and smooth modeling of the luscious forms. Michelangelo’s compelling vision of beauty was meant to be seen up close so that the viewer can look directly into Jesus’ face. The 25-year old artist is said to have slipped into the church at night to sign the statue on the strap across the Virgin’s breast after it was finished, answering directly questions that had come up about the identity of its creator.^[1]