“In every
block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me,
shaped
and perfect in attitude and in action.
I
have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition
to
reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”
Michelangelo
Things You Should Know About Michelangelo's 'Pietà'
Since its
creation in 1499, Michelangelo's Pietà has inspired emotion, faith, and
imitation through its elegant depiction of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.
Yet few know the secrets that are still being uncovered about this
centuries-old statue.
Michelangelo
carved a number of works in Florence during his time with the Medici, but in
the 1490s he left Florence and briefly went to Venice, Bologna, and then to
Rome, where he lived from 1496-1501.
IT WAS COMMISSIONED
BY A FRENCH CARDINAL FOR HIS OWN FUNERAL
In 1497, a
cardinal named Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, a representative of the French King
Charles VIII to the pope, wanted to be remembered long after he'd died.
To
achieve this goal, he hired Michelangelo to make a memorial for his tomb to go
into a side chapel at Old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, that would capture a
scene that was popular in Northern European art at the time: the tragic moment
of the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Christ after his crucifixion,
death, and removal from the cross, but before he was placed in the tomb.
This
is one of the key events from the life of the Virgin, known as the Seven
Sorrows of Mary, which were the subject of Catholic devotional prayers.
MICHELANGELO
CARVED IT FROM A SINGLE SLAB OF MARBLE.
Michelangelo
claimed that the block of Carrara marble he used to work on this was the most
“perfect” block he ever used, and he would go on to polish and refine this work
more than any other statue he created.
Michelangelo's exact job description for
the project was to create "the most beautiful work of marble in Rome, one
that no living artist could better."
PIETÀ IS
THE ONLY WORK MICHELANGELO EVERY SIGNED.
Vasari
tells us about the reason for this inscription in one of his passages about the
life of Michelangelo:
“Here is
perfect sweetness in the expression of the head, harmony in the joints and
attachments of the arms, legs, and trunk, and the pulses and veins so wrought,
that in truth Wonder herself must marvel that the hand of a craftsman should
have been able to execute so divinely and so perfectly, in so short a time, a
work so admirable; and it is certainly a miracle that a stone without any shape
at the beginning should ever have been reduced to such perfection as Nature is
scarcely able to create in the flesh. Such were Michelagnolo’s love and zeal
together in this work, that he left his name a thing that he never did again in
any other work written across a girdle that encircles the bosom of Our Lady.
And the
reason was that one day Michelagnolo, entering the place where it was set up,
found there a great number of strangers from Lombardy, who were praising it
highly, and one of them asked one of the others who had done it, and he
answered, “Our Gobbo from Milan.” Michelagnolo stood silent, but thought it
something strange that his labors should be attributed to another; and one
night he shut himself in there, and,
having brought a little light and his chisels, carved his name upon it. Vasari’s "Lives of the Artists"
This was
the only work of Michelangelo to which he signed his name.
THE PIECE WAS
MADE BY MICHELANGELO WHEN HE WAS ONLY 24.
The Pietà became
so successful that it helped launch Michelangelo’s career unlike any previous
work he had done. Thanks in part to putting his name in plain sight on the
Pietà, Michelangelo's reputation grew as the public's love of the statue did.
Other artists started looking at it because of its greatness, and
Michelangelo’s fame spread.
Since the
artist lived another six decades after carving the Pieta, he witnessed the
reception of the work by generations of artists and patrons through much of the
sixteenth century.
IT’S A
MASH-UP OF SCULPTING STYLES.
This was a
special work of art even in the Renaissance because at the time, multi-figured
sculptures were rare. These two figures
are carved so as to appear in a unified composition which forms the shape of a
pyramid, something that other Renaissance artists (e.g. Leonardo) also favored.
MARY'S ROBES
HIDE A CREATIVE COMPROMISE.
An
examination of each figure reveals that their proportions are not entirely
natural in relation to the other.
Although their heads are proportional, the Virgin’s body is larger than
Christ’s body. She appears so large that
if she stood up, she would likely tower over her son. The reason Michelangelo did this was probably
because it was necessary so that the Virgin could support her son on her lap;
had her body been smaller, it might have been very difficult or awkward for her
to have held an adult male as gracefully as she does.
To assist in this matter, Michelangelo has
amassed the garments on her lap into a sea of folded drapery to make her look
larger. While this drapery serves this
practical purpose, it also allowed Michelangelo to display his virtuosity and
superb technique when using a drill to cut deeply into the marble. After his work on the marble was complete,
the marble looked less like stone and more like actual cloth because of its
multiplicity of natural-looking folds, curves, and deep recesses.
In her
utter sadness and devastation, she seems resigned to what has happened, and
becomes enveloped in graceful acceptance. Michelangelo’s talent in carving
drapery is matched by his handling of the human forms in the Christ and the
Virgin, both of whom retain a sweet tenderness despite the very tragic nature
of this scene. This is, of course, the
moment when the Virgin is confronted with the reality of the death of her
son. In her utter sadness and
devastation, she seems resigned to what has happened, and becomes enveloped in
graceful acceptance.
Christ, too, is
depicted almost as if he is in a peaceful slumber, and not one who has been
bloodied and bruised after hours of torture and suffering.
In supporting Christ, the Virgin’s right hand
does not come into direct contact with his flesh, but instead it is covered
with a cloth which then touches Christ’s side. This signifies the sacredness of Christ’s body.
THE
SCULPTURE HAS BEEN CRITICIZED FOR MICHELANGELO'S DEPICTION OF MARY.
Around the
time the work was finished, there was a complaint against Michelangelo because
of the way he depicted the Virgin. She
appears rather young – so young, in fact, that she could scarcely be the mother
of a thirty-three-year-old son.
Michelangelo’s answer to this criticism was simply that women who are
chaste retain their beauty longer, which meant that the Virgin would not have
aged like other women usually do.
PIETA IN
MODERN TIMES
In more
modern times, the Pieta has experienced some colorful events. In 1964, it was lent to the New York World’s
Fair; afterwards, Pope Paul VI said it wouldn’t be lent out again and would
remain at the Vatican.
In 1972, a
Hungarian-born man (later found to be mentally disturbed) rushed the statue
with a hammer and started hitting it, including the left arm of the Virgin,
which came off, and her head, breaking her nose and some of her left eye.
Today, you can visit the statue in St.
Peter’s Basilica in Rome inside the first chapel to the right of its entrance
protected by the bulletproof glass.
