Pietà (Michel-Angel)

the Pietà of Michel-Angel is Statue in Marbre of the Basilique Saint-Pierre of the the Vatican to Rome, representing the biblical topic of the “painful Virgin Mary” ( Latin MATER dolorosa in ), holding on its knees the body of the Christ descended from the Croix before its Mise at the tomb, its Résurrection and its Ascension.

The sculpture is an order going back to 1497 from the French cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, cardinal and ambassador of France near the Pape. It was intended to decorate the monument of the cardinal, in the vault of the Kings de France, Santa Petronilla of old the Basilique Saint-Pierre.

Composition

What is striking while looking at this work is the age of the virgin particularly young person. Contrary to others Pietà, such as for example, that of Enguerrand Quarton with Villeneuve-the-Avignon or that of Bronzino, Michel-Angel gives more importance to the beauty of the virgin than to its pain. This mixture between the pagan beauty and the religion is a characteristic which one very frequently finds in work, and even in the life of the artist. The Christ as for him is represented according to its age and thus seems older than his/her mother. Michel-angel was explained some to Ascanio Condivi: “Don't you know, that the pure women preserve much fresher than those which are not pure? How much more consequently a virgin, in whom never seat the least desire immodeste did not take which disturbed its body…”.

Compared with the virgin the body of the Christ appears a little small, giving here still importance Marie. The body of Jesus form an S which balances with the remainder of the sculpture, in particular with the draped rich person of the clothing of the virgin. The right-hand man of the Christ falls naturally. The virgin seems to answer it by the epic open palm of its left arm.

Presentation

Representation: the Virgin Mary sitting on a rock, holding the Christ died on her knees.
Date of realization: between 1498-1500. Michel-Angel carved it at the same time as sculpture of David celebrates it.
Site of origin and current: Basilica Saint-Pierre of Rome
Tools : Chisel and Hammer with sculpture
Dimensions: 1,74m height; 1,95m length, 0,69m of width.
Recipient: the French cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas.
Notoriety: Pietà is one of the most famous works of art of all times, which ensured the notoriety of Michel-Angel.

the symbols

the form of the sculpture is triangular: the triangle is the symbol of the Holy Trinity. This form also makes it possible to emphasize the face of the Virgin.
the face of Christ expresses any suffering, that of the Virgin no sadness: it is collected and accepts the divine will.

the small imperfections

size of the characters: upright, the Virgin would be much taller than Christ.
the knees of the Virgin are offset, which forms a base for Christ.
the age of the characters: the two characters are very young, whereas the Virgin should logically be older.

Various

Michel-Angel created a kind of contrast between the Virgin and Christ: the body of Christ is very fluid and polished, contrary to the coat of the Virgin who contains deep folds.
Christ forms a diagonal.
the sculpture is in round bump, i.e. all the various parts have all their contours.
Pietà is the only work signed by the artist (Signature MICHAL.AGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENT.FACIEBAT located on the stringcourse of the Virgin).
Pietà was carved by the artist in only one block of marble, which underlines well the immense talent of Michel-Angel bus the errors were then impossible to correct…

Quotations

“How hand of craftsman could it so divinement achieve, in if little time, such an admirable work? That concerns the miracle: that a rock informs reached a perfection such as nature only models it so seldom in the flesh. ” (Giorgio Vasari).