Pietà (Michelangelo)
— — a young mother holding the weight of a grown son.
Not only on a wall.
“Michelangelo carved the Pietà between 1498 and 1499, when he was twenty-four, from a single block of Carrara marble. It stands in the Chapel of the Pietà, the first on the right as you enter St. Peter's. Mary's face reads younger than the body of Christ across her lap. It is the only work the sculptor ever signed: a strap across her chest, in Latin, his name. Since 1972 the marble has stood behind bulletproof glass. from the studio
Pietà (Michelangelo), on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Pietà stands in the first chapel on the right inside St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the small sovereign state surrounded by Rome. The sculpture was commissioned in 1498 by the French cardinal Jean de Bilhères for his funeral monument and completed in 1499, when Michelangelo Buonarroti was twenty-four years old. It is 1.74 metres tall and 1.95 metres wide and was moved into its current chapel during the rebuilding of St. Peter's. After Lászlo Toth attacked the marble with a hammer in May 1972, the work was restored and placed behind a panel of bulletproof glass, where it remains today.
The block came from the Carrara quarries in northern Tuscany, the same white statuary marble Michelangelo would later use for the David. The Pietà is the only sculpture he ever signed: across the strap that crosses Mary's chest, the Latin inscription reads MICHAEL ANGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTINUS FACIEBAT. Vasari recorded that Michelangelo signed the work after overhearing visitors credit it to another sculptor, and later regretted his pride. The polish on the marble is the deepest Michelangelo ever achieved; the surface still reads as skin under the basilica light.
St. Peter's Basilica is open to the public most days from 7:00 to 18:30, with shorter hours on Wednesday mornings during the papal audience. Entry to the basilica is free; the security line at the colonnade tends to be longest between 10:00 and noon. The Pietà chapel is the first on the right inside the main doors, behind the bulletproof glass installed after the 1972 attack. A modest dress code is enforced: shoulders and knees covered for all visitors. Photography without flash is permitted.