Classic Design Michelangelo Florence Pieta Statue

Michelangelo adopted a stable pyramid composition, with Jesus in the center of the sculptural group. He closed his eyes tightly, his body fell weakly, and his head fell feebly to the left side of his body, resting on the forehead of the Virgin. His right arm flipped outwards, his veins violent, and his twisted posture seemed to tell of the pain and torment he suffered during his lifetime. As the most faithful believer, Mary knelt on the ground, firmly supporting Jesus’ right leg, with a sad expression on her face. The face of the Virgin has almost no outline, as if the sculpture has not been completed, making it difficult to distinguish her expression, but the vague facial features are more like deliberate blanking, giving the viewer more space to savor. The body of the Virgin is weak, and it seems that it has been unable to support the heavy body of the Son. She put her left hand on the chest of the Son, her forehead against the head of Jesus, eager to feel the warmth of the Son again. Supporting Jesus and the Virgin is Nicodemus standing behind. He is huge, white-haired, and looks like an old man. The Virgin and Child leaned on Nicodemus’s chest. Nicodemus flicked the Virgin’s back with her left hand, and clasped Jesus’ right arm with her right hand, looking down at the mother and child with concern. Some scholars believe that Nicodemus is the artist himself, and this work is also a tombstone he built for himself. Nicodemus had a conversation with Jesus about “rebirth.” Michelangelo carved Nicodemus’s facial features according to his own appearance, which represented his re-examination of life in his ancient years.

This work is now hidden in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. The entire sculpture is 226 cm high. The sculptor was 72 years old when he created this behemoth in 1547. The size of the sculpture and the four figures are enough to explain Michelangelo’s ambitions at the time because the complex sculptures comparable to it at the time were none other than Laocoon, but there were only three figures in Laocoon. , Its height is only just over 2 meters. Michelangelo was one of the witnesses when “Laocoon” was unearthed in 1506. Perhaps at that time, he wanted to one day challenge such a difficult group statue sculpture. The integrity of the sculpture material is very important to Michelangelo. He does not allow multiple pieces of material to be used to form a sculpture, but this undoubtedly adds to the difficulty of carving Florence’s “Holy Death”, which seems to be impossible to complete. Feat. Therefore, Florence’s “Sanctuary” is also the largest and most complicated of all of Michelangelo’s works, and it is also the only one he tried to destroy.