Pieta

by michelangelo

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Things you should know about Pieta
⬗ Michelangelo carved it from a single slab of
marble.
⬗ Pieta is the only work he signed.
⬗ Pieta made Michelangelo famous when he
was only 24 years old.
⬗ The Pieta was brutally attacked and its
destruction was not deemed a criminal
offense.
 The artist
Michelangelo di
Lodovico
Buonarroti
Simoni

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  Born in Caprese, Italy, outside of
Florence, on March 6, 1475.

 Thought to be the greatest artist who

ever lived: sculptor, painter, architect
etc.

 Died in Rome on February 18,1564,

at the age of 89.
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 Early years
After he was born his mother was too ill to
care for him, so he lived with a
stone-mason's family until he was 10 years
old.

As a child, he was always surrounded by

chisels and stone. He joked that this was
why he loved to sculpt.
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Michelangelo: his beginnings in art
⬗ His father recognized his intelligence, and h
is talent with drawing and painting. At age
14, he sent him to study under professional
painters and sculptors.
⬗ Michelangelo's work caught the attention
of the wealthy and powerful art patron
Lorenzo de Medici. Medici invited him to
come work in Florence. He was now paid
to create his art.
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 Battle of the
Centaurs, done
when he was only 16
years old.

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Michelangelo as a sculptor
⬗ Michelangelo in his heart considered
himself as a sculptor first, a painter second.
⬗ He was happiest and most proud of his
sculpting works.
⬗ Between 1492 and 1505, Michelangelo
completed his most famous stone works;
The Pieta (1498-1499) and David (1501 –
1504).

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 The pieta

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 David
It resides in the Accademia Museum in
Florence, Italy.
Carved out of a single slab of stone, the statue
is 14.24 ft tall.
From the Biblical story of David and Goliath,
it was meant to symbolize the heroic courage
of the people of Florence.

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 David

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 Michelangelo as a painter
He primarily used a technique called
Fresco.
Fresco is a painting with water based
pigment onto a layer of plaster that is still wet.
When the plaster dries, the color becomes a
permanent part of the finished surface

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 The Sistine Chapel.
Michelangelo’s most famous
fresco painting

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  Commissioned by Pope Julius II to sculpt a
tomb, but project was switched to painting
the chapel ceiling instead.
 He painted his vision of the Old Testament
stories in 9 large rectangular panels.
 Contains approximately 400 life size figures
over a space of 5600 square feet.

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 The creation of adam.
Depicts God the father rceating Adam and was amongst the last panels to
be completed, telling the story of genesis.

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⬗ Michelangelo suffered permanent back and
eye injuries from his four years of painting
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
⬗ His major works in his later years include the
Tomb of Julius, the dome and altar area of
St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Last Judgment
fresco.
⬗ He continued to sculpt, paint, and design
buildings up until his death in 1564.
⬗ He is buried in Santa Croce Cathedral in
Florence, Italy.

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 Michelangelo
What makes him exceptional?

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 He has unbelievable skills
He is a genius.

His passion for art.

He is an inventor and has
ability to influence.

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 “ No other artist in history
has approached
Michelangelo’s mastery
in three main types of
art.

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 Painting
His figurative expressiveness
remains unequalled. His works
has a lasting impact on the theory
of fine arts as taught by the great
academies of Europe.

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 Sculpture
This is his main forte. His
understanding of space, form and
appearance, as does his ability to
express a wide variety of different
emotions in three-dimensional
marble.

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 Architecture
He had no architectural training,
in essence teaching himself how to
design buildings. However, he had
not followed the standard path
into architecture design.

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 Michelangelo is a genius.
⬗ He is called The Divine Artist
⬗ He is the first artist to be deemed
genius by contemporary art
historians.
⬗ His name was even treated as
synonym with “The Best
Renaissance Art”.
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 Michelangelo’s passion for his art.
⬗ He was the first artist to dissect corpses in
order to understand how the human body
looks liked.
⬗ He even learned anatomy.
⬗ He also learned the Greek and Roman Gods.
⬗ Sistine Chapel took long years to finish.
⬗ Florentine authorities chose him to carve
“David”.

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 Michelangelo is an innovator and has the
ability to influence.
⬗ He influence the development of Academic
Art.
⬗ He influenced the new style of Mannerism.
⬗ He introduced realistic approach in
sculpture.
⬗ He promotes that all types of art has equal
merit.

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Picturing the Passion: ‘Pieta’ by
Michelangelo
The most “perfect”block
of marble becomes the
embodiment of
perfection itself.

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 The term Pieta finds its
roots in the Italian word for
“pity”and the Latin word
for “piety”.
This composition depicts
the Virgin Mary cradling
the dead body of her son
Jesus in her loving arms.

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 “ With no reference in the scriptures, the Pieta subject
developed as a devotional image in the 13th century
Germany, where it was regarded as Veseperbild or
“the evening picture.” popularized by the Franciscans,
it evoked devotion and faith. This piety was
further propagated by colonial influence to
the other European nations,
including France and Italy.

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 Michelangelo’s Pieta
⬗ The most successful and eponymous
depiction of the Pieta is undoubtedly that
created by Michelangelo.
⬗ He was only 24 when the French Cardinal
Jean de Bilheres commissioned this statue
as his funeral monument.
⬗ He used a block of Carrara marble, which
he later claimed was the most “perfect”
block of marble he had ever used.

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 Pyramidal in shape, the body of the
beautiful Virgin is enlarged.
 The proportions are not symmetrical and
natural.
 Michelangelo, in all his creative genius,
hides this enlargement with exquisite,
lifelike folds of a full-length drapery.
(clothes/textile)
 The folds set the sculpture into motion and
enhance its alternation of light and shadow.
 The ruffling pleats also highlight
Michelangelo’s excellent virtuosity and his
skill to shape marble pieces into deeply-cut
works of art.
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Unique Illustration of the Virgin Mary
She is not described as an aged mother but rather as a
young and elegant maiden. Michelangelo received quite a
few brick-bats for this imagery. But his depiction was
coupled by a virtue. His work never compromised on the
theology of the time. As a Third Order Franciscan,
Michelangelo believed in the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception and the Virgin’s incorruptible purity.
Countering a critique, he is said to have stated:
“Do you not know that chaste women stay afresh 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?”

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 Mary does not directly touch the
body of her son Jesus. Her right
arm gently caresses his flesh
through a cloth. This signifies
the sacredness of His suffering
and the divinity of His form.

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 The rendering of the body of
Christ. He appears not bloodied
and bruised but rather peaceful
and resigned.

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 The loss of life is made apparent
through the exposed rib cage and
the sucked-in abdomen. The
expression on His face is gentle,
in harmony with his joints, his
arms, torso and legs, which are
realistically articulated with
finely wrought veins and pulses.
His exposed thorax reveals His
vulnerability and innocence.

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 After two years the statue was complete and
Michelangelo was highly pleased by the
outcome of his love and labor. The Pieta
stirred his heart, recalling to his mind his very
own mother who had passed away when he
was only five. Such was his intimacy that he
often visited the chapel where it was displayed.
On one such visit, he overheard a group of
Lombardy tourists praising the statue and
acclaiming it to be the work of his
contemporary, Gobbo from Milan.

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 He found it strange that his work
was attributed to someone else.
That night he secretly locked
himself inside the Church with a
little light and chisel\led out his
name on the band that ran
through Mary’s cloak. However,
later he regretted his prompt
decision as an indication of his
pride and vowed to never again
leave his mark on any other work
of art.
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 The throbbing soul of the statue is in the
relationship that the two figures share.
The Virgin is confronted with the reality
of the death of her son. Yet the work is
not a loud cry of mourning and
devastation but rather a serene scene of
tranquility and graceful acceptance. As
Mary tilts her head forward towards
Christ, His head is thrown back in the
helplessness of human death. And yet the
Virgin recognizes the newness of life.

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 Mary’s left hand.

Exposed, it softly invites us to

meditate on the death of her Son. She
delicately presents to us the Body of
Christ as a path to salvation. What a
profound statement of the
Renaissance on the essence of the
Eucharist, on the essence of Christ
whose death was not the end but the
beginning of eternal life
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 The world-famous Pieta has not only won
substantial adulation but has also sustained
dramatic damage. In May 1972, a mentally
disturbed geologist, a Hungarian by birth,
walked into the chapel and attacked the
sculpture with his hammer, shouting, “I am
Jesus Christ. I have risen from the dead.” The
result of the 15 blows was a disfigured Mary
sans her arm and a chunk of her nose.
Painstakingly restored, today the statue is
housed behind bullet-proof glass and placed
at the right of the entrance to St. Peter’s
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Basilica.
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Style/Approach
(Humanism)
 ⬗ burst of curiosity about the human body
and figure
⬗ being conveyed in a very human way
⬗ the human aspect of Jesus' story were put
on display

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 The Magnitude of
the Art
How did this artwork impact itself on you?

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 “ God couldn’t be
everywhere, so he
made mothers.

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Pieta: findings
⬗ The piece is a solid and massive
unit.
⬗ World’s most well known and
beloved masterpiece.

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 Flaw: Age Discrepancy

“Chastity enjoys eternal youth.”

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 Flaw: If the dead figure of Jesus were to stand
erect, he would be about six feet tall. If his Mother
Mary, who hold him in her lap, stood up, she
would be more than twice that height.

 His Mary is massive unlike so many

depiction of women
 Her shoulders are not bent, they do not
seem to strain
 Her face is still, silent and solid.

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 “ If so often, the sad fate
of women is to bear
what men have
wrought, Mary does
this like no other.

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 Thank you!
Presented by Group 2 - Sculpture.
Allanic, Ryan Angelica.
Berba, Janica.
Boclaras, Herwin Mae.
Castor, Princess Edelyn.
Delmo, Antonio Nestor Jr.
Galgo, Albert
Katangkatang, Jessica Vi.

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