what do mean by pieta and describe Michelangelo briefly?
La Pietà (1499) is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo 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. 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. Sources: http://en.wikip
Pietà Project – Overview We have been engaged in a project to create a detailed three dimensional model of Michelangelo’s Florentine Pietà (shown in the photograph). This project was defined and driven by the research interests of Dr. Jack Wasserman, professor emeritus of art history at Temple University. Dr. Wasserman had been studying Michelangelo’s Florentine Pietà for several years, intending primarily to fully document all aspects of the statue and its history for future researchers; and secondarily to investigate his own theories on Michelangelo’s composition. He had used high-quality photography, x-ray and ultra-violet light studies, as well as researching the complex history and symbolism of the statue and its analysis by past art historians. Dr. Wasserman believed that this work presented certain puzzles that could not be solved by these methods alone, and conceived the idea of creating a digital model as an additional analytic tool. He felt that the Pietà was especially well-
The most famous Pietà is Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His body is different from most earlier pietà statues, which were usually smaller and in wood. The Virgin is also unusually youthful, and in repose, rather than the older, sorrowing Mary of most pietàs. She is shown as youthful for two reasons; God is the source of all beauty and she is one of the closest to God, also the exterior is thought as the revelation of the interior (the virgin is morally beautiful). Michelangelo’s last work was another Pietà, this one featuring not the Virgin Mary holding Christ, but rather Joseph of Arimathea, probably carved as a self-portrait. The pieta is most famous because, out of all the things Michelangelo sculpted, The La Pieta was the only one he ever signed.
