Sculptures And Statues Codexery

Pietà (Michelangelo)

Michelangelo's only signed sculpture, a High Renaissance masterpiece.

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Michelangelo carved the work between 1498 and 1500, finishing it at age 25.[1] Michelangelo signed no other piece besides this one.[2][3][4]

Key facts and history

A French cardinal, Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas, originally commissioned the statue as an altarpiece for his funeral chapel in Old St Peter's.[2][3] The structure is pyramidal, with Mary's head at the vertex and the rock of Golgotha at the base.[5] According to Giorgio Vasari, Michelangelo signed the work after overhearing someone attribute it to another sculptor.[6] The statue was moved to its current location in the 18th century after the original chapel was demolished.[2][3]

In 1964, the Vatican lent the Pietà to the New York World's Fair.[7] The statue was shipped in a thick wooden crate secured to the deck of the liner Cristoforo Colombo.[7] In a departure from earlier Italian sculpture, Michelangelo depicted Mary as appearing younger than her son, an approach that merges naturalistic elements with classical Renaissance ideals.[8][5] According to Vasari, Michelangelo later felt remorse for his prideful act and vowed to never sign any future work.[4][1]

What the cited sources add

The BBC account states that Michelangelo overheard a pilgrim remark the work was by rival Christoforo Solari, prompting the signature.[1] A Guardian article notes that the attacker, Laszlo Toth, was never charged with a criminal offence.[9] Cherubic angels were added in 1713 by his descendant.[10] The same source states that during the restoration following the 1972 attack, restorers found an "M" monogram on the palm of the Madonna's left hand that had not been known before.[9]

References

  1. "The Divine Michelangelo – overview of Michelangelo's major artworks", BBC. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
  2. Wikipedia, "Pietà (Michelangelo)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The History · The Vatican Pietà · Fordham Art History", michelangelo.ace.fordham.edu (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Pietà (Michelangelo)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The History · The Vatican Pietà · Fordham Art History", michelangelo.ace.fordham.edu; "Michelangelo Monogram Found on Pieta (Published 1972)", 1972-12-01 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Pietà (Michelangelo)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Divine Michelangelo – overview of Michelangelo's major artworks", BBC; Aileen June Wang, "Michelangelo's Signature", The Sixteenth Century Journal, 2004, p. 447–473 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Pietà (Michelangelo)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Everything you need to know about Michelangelo Buonarroti's Pietà", Official tourist service for Saint Peter's Basilica, 2017-04-14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Pietà (Michelangelo)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: William E. Wallace, 1995 Life and Early Works (Michelangelo: Selected Scholarship in English) p. 233; Majanlahti, "Michelangelo's Signature and the Myth of Genius", Hyperallergic, 2023-03-30 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Pietà (Michelangelo)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: The Saga of a Statue, Edward M. Kinney, 1989; "Michelangelo's Pieta arrives in New York", 1964-04-14, p. 13 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Pietà (Michelangelo)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Michelangelo, la Pietà, Skira, 1997, Antonio Paolucci; "Michelangelo's Pieta. The sculptural masterpiece of the 15th century.", www.romeandyou.org, 3 April 2020 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Whatever happened to Laszlo Toth, the man who smashed Michelangelo's Pieta in 1972? Notes and Queries guardian.co.uk", www.theguardian.com. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  10. Wikipedia, "Pietà (Michelangelo)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Urbanus VIII, Papam. Domina coronatum est, signed and notarized on 14 August 1637. Vatican Secret Archives. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Pietà (Michelangelo) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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