The Vir­gin Mary has fea­tured prodi­gious­ly in Chris­t­ian art for many cen­turies. There are numer­ous gen­res of her depic­tion includ­ing the famil­iar Madon­na and Child, and the Madon­na Enthroned, the Ador­ing Madon­na, the Madon­na of Humil­i­ty, and sev­er­al oth­ers.  One such, the Pietà (Ital­ian for “pity” or “mer­cy”), is a sub­ject that depicts the sor­row­ing Vir­gin Mary cradling the dead Jesus, and is most often found in sculp­ture. Today’s sub­ject is the Pietà of Michelan­ge­lo, com­plet­ed in 1499 and resid­ing in St Peter’s Basil­i­ca, Vat­i­can City.

There is no doubt­ing the sub­lime genius that cre­at­ed this piece. Carved from a sin­gle block of Car­rara mar­ble, Michelan­ge­lo cre­at­ed, with con­sum­mate skill, a coher­ent and mov­ing piece of art incor­po­rat­ing both Clas­si­cal and Renais­sance ten­den­cies.

The fig­ures are delib­er­ate­ly out of pro­por­tion owing to the dif­fi­cul­ty of depict­ing an adult man cra­dled full-length in a woman’s lap. When design­ing Mary’s mea­sure­ments, Michelan­ge­lo could not impose real­is­tic pro­por­tions and have her cra­dle her adult son as he envi­sioned, so he had to make her body over­sized. To ame­lio­rate this com­pro­mise on her form, Michelan­ge­lo carved out cas­cad­ing sheets of drap­ing gar­ments, cam­ou­flag­ing her true full­ness. The result is a tri­umph of form; observe the mon­u­men­tal drap­ery, the youth­ful face of Mary, the anatom­i­cal treat­ment of Christ’s elon­gat­ed body…

Michelan­ge­lo was 24 when he com­plet­ed this sculp­ture, and his fame became assured long before he com­plet­ed his oth­er mas­ter­pieces such as his David (com­plet­ed 1504) and the Sis­tine Chapel ceil­ing (com­plet­ed 1512)