Pietà (Michelangelo) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids La Madonna della PietàOur Lady of Piety |
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| Artist | Michelangelo Buonarroti |
| Year | 1498–1499 |
| Type | Marble |
| Subject | Jesus and Mary |
| Dimensions | 174 cm × 195 cm (68.5 in × 76.8 in) |
| Location | Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City |
| 41°54′8″N 12°27′12″E / 41.90222°N 12.45333°E | |
| Preceded by | Bacchus (Michelangelo) |
| Followed by | David (Michelangelo) |
The Madonna della Pietà (Italian: [pjeˈta]; 1498–1499) informally known as La Pietà is a marble sculpture of Jesus and Mary at Mount Golgotha representing the "Sixth Sorrow" of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Michelangelo Buonarroti, now in Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. It is a key work of Italian Renaissance sculpture and often taken as the start of the High Renaissance.
The sculpture captures the moment when Jesus, taken down from the cross, is given to his mother Mary. Mary looks younger than Jesus; art historians believe Michelangelo was inspired by a passage in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy: "O virgin mother, daughter of your Son...your merit so ennobled human nature that its divine Creator did not hesitate to become your creature" (Paradiso, Canto XXXIII). Michelangelo's aesthetic interpretation of the Pietà is unprecedented in Italian sculpture because it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism.
The statue was originally commissioned by a French cardinal, Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, then French ambassador in Rome. The Carrara marble sculpture was made for the cardinal's funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the north side after the entrance of the basilica, in the 18th century. It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed.
The statue was restored after the figure of Mary was vandalized on Pentecost Sunday of 1972 by a mentally disturbed man; it is now protected by a bulletproof glass screen.
Mary
Mary is represented as being very young for the mother of an approximately 33-year-old son, which is not uncommon in depictions of the Passion of Christ at the time. Various explanations have been suggested for this. One is that her youth symbolizes her incorruptible purity.
Another theory suggests that Michelangelo's treatment of the subject was influenced by his passion for Dante's Divine Comedy: so well-acquainted was he with the work that when he went to Bologna, he paid for hospitality by reciting verses from it. In "il Paradiso" (Cantica # 33 of the poem), Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in a prayer for the Virgin Mary, says: "Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio" ("Virgin mother, daughter of your son"). This is in accordance with the mystical doctrine of the Holy Trinity representing the following archetypes:
- Mary is the Daughter of Triune God the Father
- Mary is also his Mother as she bore the incarnated Christ in flesh
- Mary is also the designated wife and Spouse of the Holy Spirit.
After completion
Following completion, the Pietà's first home was the Chapel of Saint Petronilla, a Roman mausoleum near the south transept of Saint Peter's, which the Cardinal chose as his funerary chapel. The chapel was later demolished by Donato Bramante during his rebuilding of the basilica.
According to Giorgio Vasari, shortly after the installation of his Pietà, Michelangelo overheard someone remark (or asked visitors about the sculptor) that it was the work of another sculptor, Cristoforo Solari, whereupon Michelangelo signed the sculpture. Michelangelo carved the words on the sash running across Mary's chest.
MICHÆLANGELVS BONAROTVS FLORENTINVS FACIEBAT
(English: "Michelangelo Buonarroti, the Florentine made this")
The signature echoes one used by the ancient Greek artists Apelles and Polykleitos. It was the only work he ever signed. Vasari also reports the anecdote that Michelangelo later regretted his outburst of pride and swore never to sign another work of his hands.
Fifty years later, Vasari declared the following regarding the Pietà:
"Never think, a rare sculptor or craftsman, to be able to add design or grace, nor with difficulty never being able to finesse, cleanliness and to pierce the marble as much with art, as Michelangelo did there, because you can see in it all the value and power of art."
Pope Urban VIII granted the venerated Marian image a Pontifical decree of canonical coronation via his Papal bull "Domina Coronatum Est" signed and notarized on 14 August 1637 and granted to its patronal donor, Lord Ascanio Sforza y Pallavicini and Canon priest of the Vatican Chapter, Monsignor Ugo Ubaldini. The levitating diadem was manufactured by the Italian artisan, Fantino Taglietti, who charged 564 Italian scudo coins at the time. The official rite of coronation was executed on 31 August 1637. The cherubic angels were added in 1713 by his descendant, later relocated to the "Chapel of the Holy Choir" within the basilica in 1749.
In 1964, the Pietà was lent by the Vatican to the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair to be installed in the Vatican pavilion. The former Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Francis Spellman formally requested the statue from Pope John XXIII, appointed Edward M. Kinney, Director of Purchasing and Shipping of Catholic Relief Services – USCC, to head up the Vatican Transport Teams. The statue was shipped in a wooden crate 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) thick with an 8-inch (20 cm) base, secured to the deck of the liner Cristoforo Colombo; in case of an accident, the crate contained cushioning so thick that it would float in water, and had an emergency locator beacon as well as a marker buoy attached.
At the fair, people stood in line for hours to catch a glimpse from a conveyor belt moving past the sculpture. It was returned to the Vatican afterwards.
Other Michelangelo Pietàs
Several decades later, Michelangelo returned twice to the subject of the Pietà, but neither work was completed. The Florentine Pietà of c. 1547 – 1553 was apparently indended for his own tomb, but abandoned after several years work. It is often called a Deposition, representing a moment slightly earlier in the story. The Rondanini Pietà was begun in 1552, and still very unfinished at his death in 1564; he had been working on it six days before.
Restoration (1736)
Subsequent to its carving the Pietà sustained much damage. Four fingers on Mary's left hand, broken during a move, were professionally restored in 1736 by the Roman sculptor Giuseppe Lirioni (1690—1746). Modern scholars today are divided as to whether the restorer took artistic liberties to make the hand gestures more "rhetorical".
See also
- Pietà
- Asteroid 274472 Pietà
- Replicas of Michelangelo's Pietà
- List of statues of Jesus
- List of works by Michelangelo
- List of Vatican City-related articles
