Extra Credit Blog
Michelangelo’s Pieta
Michelangelo was born in the small Italian village of Caprese March 6, 1475 . He was the son of a government administrator and became an apprentice to the famous artist Domenico Ghirlandaio at the young age of 13. After about a year or so of apprenticing he stopped painting and decided to begin working as a sculptor. He carved the marble sculpture Pieta when he was just 23 years old, the term “pieta” means pity in Italian. This sculptural piece took approximately two years to complete. This sculpture shows Mary holding the dead, lifeless body of her son Jesus after he was removed from the cross. This piece was the first of many larger than life statues Michelangelo created. The Pieta is the only piece of work which Michelangelo signed and is located in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican
This statue is in the shape of a pyramid, Mary’s head forms the highest point and serves as the vertex to he remaining portion of the sculpture. This pieces is not well proportioned, Mary is substantially larger than Christ. This was done because it was hard for Michelangelo to depict a full grown man in a woman’s lap. However Michelangelo was able to pull this off by depicting Mary as wearing a full length robe which consisted of layers of folded drapery. Mary is depicted as a beautiful young woman, very different from what her actual age would have been at the time of the Christ’s death. There have been many theories as to why she was shown this way, however I feel that it is best described as a depiction of her incorruptible purity.
Throughout time the Pieta has sustained some damage. During a move four of the fingers on Mary's left hand were broken off. They were restored in 1736 by Giuseppe Lirioni. The worst damage occurred on May 21, 1972. A mentally ill man named Laszlo Toth walked into the chapel and attacked the sculpture with a hammer while repeatedly shouting "I am Jesus Christ.". Some of the witnesses took pieces of marble which flew off as he struck it with the hammer. Some of the pieces were returned later on, but many were not, including Mary's nose. This eventually had to be reconstructed from a piece of marble cut out of her back.. After the attack, the statue was meticulously restored and returned to its place in St. Peter's where it is now protected by a bullet-proof glass.
Michelangelo was an amazing artist who worked until his death in 1564 at the age of 88. In addition to his major pieces of art work, he also produced several sculptures, architectural designs, fresco's and drawings. Many of his pieces are unfinished and some were unfortunately lost. Michelangelo was also famous for his poetry; about three hundred of his poems have been preserved. In his lifetime, he was celebrated as Europe 's greatest living artist, and today he is held up as one of the greatest multi talented artists of all time.
References
- http://www.moodbook.com/history/renaissance/michelangelo-pieta.html
- http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Pieta/Pieta.htm
- http://www.askmichelangelo.com/
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