the medium of prints. Some considered Michelangelo’s Pietà blasphemous
because there was no support for the scene in the Gospels. During the
Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, a Catholic writer called the
subject “a Lutheran notion.”
The youth of the beautiful Virgin Mary, apparently no older than her dead
son, was a subject of debate. Michelangelo is said to have explained it by
saying that Mary’s eternal chastity was demonstrated by the unchanging
À ower of her youth. In the sculpture, the group is supported by an oval base
imitating a rock that serves as a seat for the Virgin Mary. Her robe, overlaid
by the winding sheet in which Jesus was lowered from the cross, spreads
out over the base of the stone in broad folds. From this base, the group is
composed in a pyramidal shape culminating at Mary’s head.
The eye follows the ascent on the right with Christ’s projecting left leg and
the Madonna’s extended arm, and on the left, by the curve of the winding
sheet, which Mary pulls up to support Christ’s shoulder. The curve of his
right arm echoes this upward movement and introduces a circular motion
that continues through his head and her shoulder. The invention of the broad
base of drapery, together with the integration of the body into Mary’s lap and
the rhythms of the cloth, was necessary to convincingly support the large
body of Christ.
His long, smoothly modeled body provides the emotional focus. It is tilted
slightly forward in an almost ritual display of the corpus domini, the body of
the Lord, the symbol of the Christian communion. Above it, the upper robe
of the Virgin’s torso is arranged in deeply cut broken folds that crystallize
her inner emotion. Note the contrast between Christ’s limp left hand and
the open gesture of Mary’s left hand. This is the most highly ¿ nished and
detailed sculpture Michelangelo ever made. It is also the only sculpture he
ever signed; the signature is on the sash across Mary’s breast.
Our next example is the famous David (c. 1501–1504). It would be dif¿ cult
to imagine a more complete contrast than that between this David and
Donatello’s bronze David. Not only the medium differs—marble instead
of bronze—but Michelangelo’s ¿ gure is a heroic young man, not a rather
epicene boy. Michelangelo’s work is huge when compared with Donatello’s,