Pietà

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564)
Pietà (1498–99)
Marble statue, 174 cm. high, 195 cm. wide (at base)
Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican

In the Pietà, Michelangelo approached a subject which until then had been given form mostly north of the Alps, where the portrayal of pain had always been connected with the idea of redemption: it was called the “Vesperbild” and represented the seated Madonna holding Christ’s body in her arms. But now the twenty-three-year-old artist presents us with an image of the Madonna with Christ’s body never attempted before. Her face is youthful, yet beyond time; her head leans only slightly over the lifeless body of her son lying in her lap. “The body of the dead Christ exhibits the very perfection of research in every muscle, vein, and nerve. No corpse could more completely resemble the dead than does this. There is a most exquisite expression in the countenance. The veins and pulses, moreover, are indicated with so much exactitude, that one cannot but marvel how the hand of the artist should in a short time have produced such a divine work. “The Pietà is the first of a number of works of the same theme by Michelangelo. The statue was commissioned for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres, who was a representative in Rome. The sculpture, in Carrara marble, 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.

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?” 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.