strength conveyed through complex, eccentric, and often titanic
forms that loom before the viewer in tragic grandeur. Michelangelo’s
self-imposed isolation, creative furies, proud independence, and
daring innovations led Italians to speak of the dominating quality of
the man and his works in one word—terribilità,the sublime shad-
owed by the awesome and the fearful.
As a youth, Michelangelo was an apprentice in the studio of the
painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, whom he left before completing his
training. Although Michelangelo later claimed that in his art he owed
nothing to anyone, he made detailed drawings in the manner of the
great Florentines Giotto and Masaccio. Early on, he came to the atten-
tion of Lorenzo the Magnificent and studied sculpture under one of
Lorenzo’s favorite artists, Bertoldo di Giovanni (ca. 1420–1491), a for-
mer collaborator of Donatello. When the Medici fell in 1494,
Michelangelo fled from Florence to Bologna, where the sculptures of
the Sienese artist Jacopo della Quercia (1367–1438) impressed him.
PIETÀ Michelangelo’s wanderings took him to Rome, where,
around 1498, still in his early 20s, he produced his first masterpiece,
a Pietà(FIG. 22-12), for the French cardinal Jean de Bilhères La-
graulas (1439–1499). The cardinal commissioned the statue to
adorn the chapel in Old Saint Peter’s (FIG. 11-9) in which he was to
be buried. (The work is now on view in the new church that replaced
the fourth-century basilica.) The theme—Mary cradling the dead
body of Christ in her lap—was a staple in the repertoire of French
and German artists (FIG. 18-51), and Michelangelo’s French patron
doubtless chose the subject. The Italian, however, rendered the
Northern theme in an unforgettable manner. Michelangelo trans-
formed marble into flesh, hair, and fabric with a sensitivity for tex-
ture that is almost without parallel. The polish and luminosity of the
exquisite marble surface cannot be captured fully in photographs
and can be appreciated only in the presence of the original. Breath-
taking too is the tender sadness of the beautiful and youthful Mary
as she mourns the death of her son. In fact, her age—seemingly less
than that of Christ—was a subject of controversy from the moment
of the unveiling of the statue. Michelangelo explained Mary’s ageless
beauty as an integral part of her purity and virginity. Beautiful too is
the son whom she holds. Christ seems less to have died than to have
drifted off into peaceful sleep in Mary’s maternal arms. His wounds
are barely visible.High and Late Renaissance 58922-12Michelangelo
Buonarroti,Pietà,ca. 1498–1500.
Marble, 5 81 – 2 high. Saint Peter’s,
Vatican City, Rome.
Michelangelo’s representation of
Mary cradling Christ’s corpse
brilliantly captures the sadness
and beauty of the young Virgin
but was controversial because
the Madonna seems younger than
her son.1 ft.22-12A
MICHELANGELO,
Pietà,
ca. 1547–1555.