Pietà (Michelangelo)

This article is about the earliest and best-known Pietà by Michelangelo. For three related sculptures see the Florentine Pietà or The Deposition (Michelangelo), the Rondanini Pietà, and the Palestrina Pietà.

Pietà

Artist	Michelangelo
Year	1498–1499
Type	Marble
Dimensions	174 cm × 195 cm (68.5 in × 76.8 in)
Location	St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

The Pietà (1498–1499) is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres, who was a representative in Rome. The statue was made for the cardinal's funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the right as one enters the basilica, in the 18th century. It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed (See History after completion).

This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. The theme is of Northern origin, popular by that time in France but not yet in Italy. Michelangelo's interpretation of the Pietà is unique to the precedents. It is an important work as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism. The statue is one of the most highly finished works by Michelangelo.

Description

The structure is pyramidal, and the vertex coincides with Mary's head. The statue widens progressively down the drapery of Mary's dress, to the base, the rock of Golgotha. The figures are quite out of proportion, owing to the difficulty of depicting a fully-grown man cradled full-length in a woman's lap. Much of Mary's body is concealed by her monumental drapery, and the relationship of the figures appears quite natural. Michelangelo's interpretation of the Pieta was far different from those previously created by other artists, as he sculpted a young and beautiful Mary rather than an older woman around 50 years of age.^[1]

The marks of the Crucifixion are limited to very small nail marks and an indication of the wound in Jesus' side.

Christ's face does not reveal signs of The Passion. Michelangelo did not want his version of The Pieta to represent death, but rather to show the "religious vision of abandonment and a serene face of the Son", thus the representation of the communion between man and God by the sanctification through Christ.

Interpretations

The Madonna is represented as being very young, and about this peculiarity there are different interpretations. One is that her youth symbolizes her incorruptible purity, as Michelangelo himself said to his biographer and fellow sculptor Ascanio Condivi:

Do you not know that chaste women stay fresh much more than those who are not chaste? How much more in the case of the Virgin, who had never experienced the least lascivious desire that might change her body?

Another explanation suggests that Michelangelo's treatment of the subject was influenced by his passion for Dante's Divina Commedia: so well-acquainted was he with the work that when he went to Bologna he paid for hospitality by reciting verses from it. In Paradiso (cantica 33 of the poem), Saint Bernard, in a prayer for the Virgin Mary, says "Vergine madre, figlia del tuo figlio" (Virgin mother, daughter of your son). This is said because, being that Christ is one of the three figures of Trinity, Mary would be his daughter, but it is also she who bore him.

A third interpretation is the one suggested by Condivi shortly after the passage quoted above: simply that "such freshness and flower of youth, besides being maintained in by natural means, were assisted by act of God".

Yet another exposition posits that the viewer is actually looking at an image of Mary holding the baby Jesus. Mary's youthful appearance and apparently serene facial expression, coupled with the position of the arms could suggest that she is seeing her child, while the viewer is seeing an image of the future.

Finally, one modern interpretation suggests that the smaller size of Christ helps to illustrate his feebleness while in his state of death; no longer living, he now appears small in his mother's arms.

Interpreting the sculpture in terms of its name, one might trace the origin: "The duty children owed their parents, termed pietas, was associated by Romans with the duty humans owed their gods" (James S. Jeffers, The Greco-Roman World of the New and Old Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity, Downers Grove, Ill. InterVarsity Press, 1999).

Precedent

Pietà

While there was a precedent for painted depictions of Mary grieving over the dead Christ in Florentine art, the subject appears to have been novel to Italian sculpture. There was, however, a tradition of sculptured pietàs in Northern art, particularly in Germany, Poland and the Cardinal's native France. In addition, the church of San Domenico in Bologna had a German sculpted pietà. This has led some to believe that the donor had these statues in mind when the work was commissioned.

History after completion

The process took less than two years. The Pietà's first home was the Chapel of Santa Petronilla, a Roman mausoleum near the south transept of St. Peter's, which the Cardinal chose as his funerary chapel. The chapel was later demolished by Bramante during his rebuilding of the basilica. According to Giorgio Vasari, shortly after the installation of his Pietà Michelangelo overheard (or asked visitors about the sculptor) someone remark that it was the work of another sculptor, Cristoforo Solari, whereby Michelangelo signed the sculpture.^[2] Michelangelo carved MICHAELA[N]GELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTIN[US] FACIEBA[T] (Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this) on the sash running across Mary's chest. 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.^[3][4]

In subsequent years the Pietà sustained much damage. Four fingers on Mary's left hand, broken during a move, were restored in 1736 by Giuseppe Lirioni, and scholars are divided as to whether the restorer took liberties to make the gesture more 'rhetorical'. The most substantial damage occurred on May 21, 1972 (Pentecost Sunday) when a mentally disturbed geologist named Laszlo Toth walked into the chapel and attacked the sculpture with a geologist's hammer while shouting "I am Jesus Christ." Onlookers took many of the pieces of marble that flew off. Later, some pieces were returned, but many were not, including Mary's nose, which had to be reconstructed from a block cut out of her back.

After the attack, the work was painstakingly restored and returned to its place in St. Peter's, just to the right of the entrance, between the Holy door and the altar of Saint Sebastian, and is now protected by a bullet-proof acrylic glass panel.

The sculpture was shipped to New York in 1964 in order to become the main draw for the Vatican pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair, where it was viewed by millions. A copy was transported beforehand to ensure that the statue could be conveyed without being damaged. This copy is on view at St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie, in Yonkers.

Authorized replicas

Copy in Poznań

• Cathedral Santiago Apóstol, Santiago, Dominican Republic
• Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in Poznań – this copy was used as a model in reconstruction of original after damage in 1972
• La Piedad Chapel, Lampa, Puno, Peru – 2 Replicas: 1 made in plaster and 1 made in aluminium
• St. John's Cathedral, Korea (Bundang)
• The Metropolitan Cathedral of Brasília, Brazil.
• St. Mary's Parish, Spring Lake, MI^[5]
• St. Mary of the Lakes Parish, Lakewood, WI
• St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
• Cathedral of Our Lady of Refuge, Matamoros, Mexico
• Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, USA ^[6]
• Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Manila Metropolitan Cathedral, The Philippines
• Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Quebec City, Canada
• Holy Family Church Green, Concord Center, Concord, Massachusetts
• Christ United Methodist Church Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
• St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Meenkunnam, Kerala, India
• Vatican Pinacoteca
• Sant'Andrea della Valle, Rome

References

1. ^ "Chapel of the Pieta". http://www.stpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Pieta/Pieta.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
2. ^ William E. Wallace, 1995 Life and Early Works (Michelangelo: Selected Scholarship in English) ISBN 0-8153-1823-5 page 233
3. ^ "The Divine Michelangelo – overview of Michelangelo's major artworks". BBC Press Office. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/02_february/05/divine_michelangelo_overview.shtml. Retrieved 2008-12-08. 
4. ^ Aileen June Wang, Michelangelo's Signature, 2004. Retrieved June 23, 2010.
5. ^ "St. Marys Parish at 406 E. Savidge Street, Spring Lake, MI 49456-1799 US – The Pieta Statue". Home.catholicweb.com. http://home.catholicweb.com/stmaryspringlake/index.cfm/NewsItem?ID=62414&From=Home. Retrieved 2010-12-22. 
6. ^ "Pieta Replica – Cathedral Basilica Saint Louis". Cathedralstl.org. http://www.cathedralstl.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=105. Retrieved 2010-12-22. 

Additional references

• Pope-Hennessy, John (1996). Italian High Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture. London: Phaidon
• Hibbard, Howard. 1974. Michelangelo. New York: Harper & Row.
• Destruction of a Pieta replica in Ninh Binh, Vietnam
• Matthew 13:55–56 Passage Lookup – New International Version BibleGateway.com
• Wallace, William E. (2009). Michelangelo; the Artist, the Man, and his Times. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Robert Hupka's Pieta Picture gallery

Coordinates: 41°54′8″N 12°27′12″E / 41.90222°N 12.45333°E / 41.90222; 12.45333