The Pietà

“In every block of marble, I see a statue----I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it”-Michelangelo

I first came across the word Pietà (“The Pity” in English) as a high school student, when we were being taught ‘Italian Renaissance’ in our social studies class. We learned that the Pietà was a sculpture of the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus in her lap- a masterpiece by the great sculpturer and painter Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564). 

I heard about Pietà again when I was doing my post- graduation---that the sculpture was vandalized by a mentally challenged person wielding a hammer that smashed Mary's arm, her nose, and one of her eyelids. 

 I stayed in Rome for a short period as a trainee in the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization), Rome. As the FAO worked only on week days, I had to find my own ways of amusement during the week ends. Armed with a monthly bus card from the Tobacconist, I started exploring the famous monuments and sites in the historic city of Rome.

Mary, my friend I gratefully remember my friend Mary (I forget her last name) who used to work in the library in the Nutrition Section of the FAO. We used to meet regularly in the FAO canteen during lunch. Mary was of Armenian origin, but was married to an Italian and settled in Rome. She could speak English fluently, and was virtually a scholar in Roman history. It was she who encouraged me to undertake the visits, painstakingly explaining the history of each site, well before my visits. Her lively briefings were invaluable to me, as I hardly knew any Italian.

The Pietà After having visited several monuments, I finally decided to visit Vatican to see the wonders of Italian Renaissance. Mary had told me the full story of the Pietà.

Michael Angelo, who was only 24 then, was commissioned by the French Cardinal Jean de Bilheres, to make a funeral monument for himself. It took Michelangelo two years to complete the work. The art work was executed in a single piece of Carrara marble. Then someone apparently told the Cardinal that it was not appropriate to have one’s tomb made, when one was alive. The idea was thus abandoned.

The sculpture was then moved to its current location, the first chapel on the north side after the entrance, in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican.

It is the first work among other statues of the same theme by Michelangelo and is the only piece said to have been signed by Michelangelo (because he, by chance,overheard some viewers erroneously assign the work to some other artist).

The Visit to Vatican

I found out from the city map of Rome that St. Peter’s Basilica is located in the Vatican City, left of the river Tiber. This magnificent monument was built during the Italian Renaissance. The construction began in 1506 and was completed in 1626. Some of the greatest artists of that time like Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and  Lorenzo Bernini were associated with its design and architecture.

One fine morning I reached the St. Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro). Although it was only the beginning of summer, the sun was indeed very bright and hot.  A large crowd had assembled in the square to see and hear the Pope; some were pilgrims or visitors to the Basilica. The queue moved slowly. In the meantime, I admired Bernini’s beautiful columns supporting the main structure of the basilica.

As I entered the basilica, I could at once spot the statue on the left side. The sculpture has its back to the wall and faced the visitor. A glass wall separated the visitors from the sculpture.

Special features   I expected the statue to be of human size, but was disappointed that it was much smaller. The sculpture showed  the body of Jesus lying across the lap of his mother Mary, after the Crucifixion. The beauty of the statue lies in the details of its execution.

Mary had told me that it was a difficult piece to execute. Many artists before Michelangelo found it difficult to depict Jesus Christ- a fully-grown man -cradled full-length across the lap of the smaller figure of Mary. Michelangelo ingeniously overcame the problem by making Mary’s drapery very elaborate, sufficient to support Christ’s body. As a historian observed, ‘The statue widens progressively down the drapery of Mary's dress, to the base, the rock of Golgotha’.

Observers are usually struck by one anomaly- the youthful Mary, looking much younger than her son. One explanation was that her youth symbolizes her incorruptible purity, as Michelangelo himself explained to his biographer. Another explanation is that  Michelangelo  who was fascinated by Dante’s  Divine Comedy, developed the idea from a prayer in the poem by Saint Bernard  to the Virgin Mary “Virgin mother, daughter of your son” (Paradiso cantica 33 of the poem). Yet another explanation is that Michelangelo who lost his mother when he was only five carried the youthful image of his mother in his heart.

Many artists before Michelangelo had portrayed Mary as a grief-stricken mother. But Michelangelo’s sculpture of Mary shows her as sad, but peaceful and composed, radiating a sublime beauty. Although Christ is represented as dead, the underlining vision of the artist appears to be that of his future resurrection.

Impact Like other visitors, I too was deeply moved by the image of a loving mother, silently mourning the death of her only son. It evokes the feelings of melancholy, empathy and compassion in the heart of the onlookers. One is reminded of not only Mary, but also thousands of mothers who lost their children in conflicts across the world, or even in daily life.

 Immediately after going home, I tried to give expressions to my deep feelings by writing a poem-spontaneously (though I lost it). Before that I had never attempted writing a poem!

Damage to the sculpture   The Pietà was intentionally damaged at least twice in the past. Four fingers on Mary's left hand, were broken, but were restored in 1736. On 21 May 1972, a mentally disturbed geologist, attacked the sculpture with a hammer.  The missing parts had to be reconstructed from a block cut out of the back of the statue. I learned that recently someone had tried again to  desecrate the sculpture.

The three versions of Pietà

It was a surprise to me when I came to know later that Michelangelo sculpted three versions of Pietà in his life-time! We saw that the first piece he sculpted in 1499 is now kept in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.

The second statue is called The Deposition of Christ (‘Pietà Bandini’), which Michelangelo sculpted between 1547 and 1555, when he was around the age of 72.  Michelangelo is said to have worked late into the night, in the light of a single candle. Historians say that  he intended the piece to  decorate his funeral monument in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

 The sculpture shows the figures of the dead body of Jesus Christ, just after crucifixion, Nicodemus or possibly Joseph of Arimathea (who later buried Jesus), Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary. Virgin and Mary Magdalene are seen receiving the body of Christ, deposed from the cross by an elderly Nicodemus.  Nicodemus with a hood is believed to portray Michelangelo himself. Some historians point out to the possibility of the scene being depicted here perhaps relating to the entombment of Jesus. 

Michelangelo did not complete the piece even after working for eight years on it, instead he reportedly smashed the sculpture in anger, as he was either dissatisfied with the outcome or discovered a flaw in the marble or that the sculpture could not be completed without the addition of a piece of marble from another block (the left foot of the statue is still missing, perhaps for want of a suitable piece of marble or because he could not carve it in the same block as rest of the sculpture). The broken statue was laboriously pieced together by an associate, who, thereafter, sold it to a Roman collector named Francesco Bandini.

The sculpture was acquired by Cosimo- 111 Medici, the Duke of Tuscany who transferred it to the church of San Lorenzo in Florence and then to the Cathedral. It is now housed in  the museum Museo dell ‘Opera del Duomo  in Florence and hence known as the Florentine Pietà.

Interestingly I came across a write-up (italoamericano.org/restoration- article dated 12-10-21) on restoration of the sculpture, carried out in 2019. Although it showed no evidence of hammer blows (possibly, they got erased in the previous restoration), but confirmed that the block used for the Pietà was indeed flawed.

Rondanini Pietà The last in the series of three Pietà statues is called Rondanini Pietà.  Michelangelo is said to have worked on this piece from 1552 until the final days of his life in 1564. (This sculpture was started before the Bandini Pietà was completed in 1555). He is said to have worked on the sculpture all day, just six days before his death.

 Michelangelo perhaps intended that the work would be used for his own tomb, but he left it unfinished upon his death, when he was 89 years old. The sculpture remained in the courtyard at the Palazzo Rondinini  in Rome for a long time. In 1744, the Pietà was purchased from the Marquis Giuseppe Rondinini, and it has been kept in Castello Sforzesco, Milan, since 1952.  

The sculpture portrays Mary holding the dead body of Jesus Christ after his deposition from the cross. The ghostly representation of the Virgin and the Christ here is quite different from the styles earlier followed by Michelangelo. ‘The two figures appearing almost detached from the ground and reaching upwards, seeming to reflect the Resurrection and the Assumption’.  Perhaps Michelangelo visualized his own resurrection and assumption through this sculpture, by adorning his tomb with it. Although it looks unfinished, some say that Michelangelo conceived of a sculpture, as latent in the marble, to be perceived by the onlookers themselves.

For the first time, the three pieces of Pietà by Michelangelo were on display together in the Tribune Room at the Opera del Duomo Museum in Florence between from 24 February until 1 August, in 2022.

The legacy of Pietà

It is difficult to say whether the Western culture has produced any sculpture of visual and spiritual beauty, superior to the Pietà by Michelangelo, in the centuries following his demise.   

The three pieces of Pietà artistically depict the bonds of love and compassion that unite all human beings; it also symbolizes the sacrifice by one individual for the good of the entire humanity. Are these two themes relevant to us any- more, especially, when we are more individualistic than ever, cynically pursuing only one’s own goals of wellness and happiness?  

Symbols like the Pietà serve to constantly remind us that ideals like sacrifice and compassion give meaning to our life, and hold us humans together, even in a technology-driven age.  Pietà, no doubt, will remain an eternal symbol of grace, beauty, love, faith and sacrifice, that was made by breathing life into marbles by a divinely inspired master, and will continue to inspire generations to come.

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