Pietà

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This article is about a form of art. There is also a town called Pietà, Malta


Pieta
Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1498/9-1500
Marble
1.74m × cm, 5 ft 8½ in × inches
Saint Peter's, Vatican, Rome

A pietà (pl. same; Italian for compassion) is an artwork depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Christ. As such, it is a particular form of the devotional theme of Our Lady of Sorrows.

The most famous pietà is Michelangelo's Pietà in the Vatican. This is considered by some to be one of Michelangelo's greatest works of art, completed when he was 24 years old in 1499 AD. It is the only work signed by Michelangelo (on a diagonal ribbon carved across Mary's breast) possibly indicating his satisfaction with his work. Another account states the artist chiseled his name out of rage for a false attribution to one of his contemporaries. When it was unveiled in 1500, Michelangelo overheard a crowd admiring it. Going closer, he soon discovered that another artist was stealing his glory. The people could not believe that a previously unknown young artist had produced something of such staggering beauty. That night, out of a caustic combination of injured pride and jealousy he chiseled a message to all future viewers on the sash across Mary's chest: MICHAELA[N]GELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTIN[US] FACIEBAT (Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, made this). However, he later regretted this action. In 1972 the statue was vandalised by Laszlo Toth wielding a hammer; he was later declared insane.

Sculptor Luis Jiménez, reversing the gender of the figures involved, used the popular Mexican and Chicano image and myth of the Aztec warrior holding his dead lover to create the monumental Southwest Pieta, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

The American Pietà was the name given to a famous Reuters photograph of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, depicting a policeman and four firemen carrying the body of fire department chaplain Mychal F. Judge out of the World Trade Center rubble.

The term "pieta" originated from a custom of the Roman Empire around the time of AD 64, referring to the act of prostrating oneself, and putting forth an "Emotion...of great love accompanied with revering fear....of the [Roman] Gods."

A rare leather pietà is in the church St. Peter und Paul in Eschweiler, Germany.

The cover of photographer David LaChapelle's book Heaven to Hell features Courtney Love and a Kurt Cobain lookalike in the pose with Love as the Virgin Mary and the Cobain lookalike as Christ.

[edit] Aesthetics

Mary and Christ are formally and psychologically inter-related so that one hardly notices Christ's relatively small size compared with Mary's massive form. The zigzag of Christ's body blends harmoniously with Mary's legs and voluminous drapery folds. Mary's left hand repeats the movement of Christ's left leg. She inclines her head forward as Christ's tilts back, and the slow curve of her drapery on the left is repeated by Christ's limp right arm. His right hand falls so that his fingers enclose and continue the prominent drapery curve between Mary's legs. In addition to the formal rhythms uniting Mary and Christ, Michelangelo makes them appear to be about the same age. He thus creates a powerful emotional and formal bond between the two figures who, though separated by death, will eventually be reunited, in Christian tradition, as King and Queen of Heaven. According to one report, when Michelangelo was asked about the age of the Virgin, he replied that her youthfulness was the result of her chaste character.

	Pietà by Michelangelo, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence	Pietà by Rogier van der Weyden, Museo del Prado, Madrid	SouthWest Pieta, by Luis Jiménez
La Pieta, by Doug Johnston	Il-Pietà statue, Żejtun, Malta