they say death is the greatest pain in the world, but the most unbearable kind of it is the loss of a child. what you want for a living being who's a part of you, whom you gave birth to, whom you love and have devoted your life to, is always a long and healthy life, but sadly not every mother gets to live out that wish. the best-known example of this is michelangelo's pieta, which means "mercy" in italian; that scene where mary carries her child in her arms with an endless grief. image
michelangelo made this sculpture at the age of 24 on commission, and jean bilheres de lagraulas, who served as a cardinal at st. peter's basilica for many years, wanted the sculpture as a tomb monument so he'd continue to be remembered after his death. the sculpture's reference source isn't the bible but the scenes of lamentation following the death of christ that were depicted in 14th-century german art. the sculpture was made by carving a single block of marble, and the terms of the commission were extremely demanding for such a young sculptor. the first of the terms was that the figure of christ be life-sized, and the other was that the sculpture be "more beautiful than any marble work to be seen in rome at the time, and that no master of the era could produce a better one." these ambitious conditions were asked for despite michelangelo's youth, and the sculpture was given as a commission to this little-known sculptor.
to realize the idea of a life-sized christ, which was one of the terms of the commission, michelangelo created the sculpture by carving a single block of carrara marble. we see the difference between mother and son through contrasts. horizontal and vertical, living and dead, nude and clothed. in order to create a life-sized christ and achieve balance in the composition, mary's shoulders were widened and an effort was made to create a proportional composition with an abundance of fabric. in the work, mary carries her son with a pained, resigned expression. even though it's an extremely striking and beautiful composition visually, there are criticized points too. one of them is that mary, who should be in her 50s at her son's death, looks far too young, but michelangelo explained this criticism as "the effect of mary being pure and a virgin having left her unspoiled." the other detail that makes the sculpture special is that michelangelo carved the latin sentence "michaelangelvs bonarotvs florentinvs faciebat" (michelangelo buonarroti, the florentine, made this) onto the sash mary wears. the pieta is the only work the artist signed in his entire career. image
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