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)