The Pieta by Michael Angelo was my favorite piece of art that we saw; it is located in St Peters Basilica in the Vatican City. It is a life size statue of the Virgin Mary holding her son Jesus in her arms and is made from a slab of marble. It was commissioned in 1498 and was first unveiled in 1500.
I have now seen two incredible marble works by Michael Angelo, The statue of David and The Pieta, and it never ceases to amaze me at how incredible the definition and clarity of the work is. It blows my mind how this man was able to produce such emotion in a piece of stone when I can barely do this drawing on paper. The part that most impressed me was the clothing of the Virgin Mary. The way it is carved seems like her garments are really falling that way, and the light creates shadows on it as if it was real clothing, it is incredible. The veins in Jesus’ body really impressed me, if you look at his foot we see how they protrude, just like he would have originally.
Another aspect of this work is that he could not make any mistakes, if he chipped or carved to hard the work would be ruined; he had to have such meticulous concentration when doing any of these marble works. This man really was a genius and I feel like this work was something that was special to him. It says that he carved his name in the sash of Mary, and afterwards he said he let his emotions get the better of him and he would never carve his name again. Clearly this piece was close to his heart, and the more I stare at it the more I can see why.
The next piece I liked is also by the great Michael Angelo. It is the portrait of the devil in the Sistine chapel. The reason I like a lot of Michael Angelo’s work is because I see him as a revolutionary. When in Florence we saw the Doni Tondo, it was a piece showing Mary and the baby Jesus. Mary was seen with short hair, and was muscular, and instead of Jesus being a perfectly behaved child, he was seen climbing all over her. He did things differently and real, and put emotion into his work.
I enjoy how he depicted the demons and creatures of hell in comparison to the scenes of God with angels; I think it is quite funny how demons are shown as big scary things and angels are more feminine creatures, makes me chuckle to think that they triumph over the big bad beings of hell. I feel like Michael Angelo intends for some of his art to amuse people, some of the demons have the most ridiculous smiles and looks on their faces.
The story behind the painting of the devil most impressed me. When Biagio da Cesena, the papal master of ceremonies, made a comment that the paintings would be more fitting for a tavern wall than a chapel, he retaliated by giving the devil the face of Biagio da Cesena. Instead of making stuff nice to appease the people who were paying him and were in charge he decided to go against this. I feel like these days art suffers for lack of this spirit. It could be because of in the USA and first world countries there are not many life changing things that people feel they need to protest or stand up against. Michael Angelo stood up against the norms of his time and dared to be different.
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