Day 10 Florence: Michelangelo's Most Personal Pieta

We shared the most profound moment of our trip in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, quite literally moved to tears by a beautiful statue created by Michelangelo that we didn't know existed until we turned the corner in the museum and happened upon it. Reflecting on the statue and its message continues to reveal insights to us. Because of our experience, we are giving this statue its own post.

The subject of the statue is the Pieta. Michelangelo's original Pieta is displayed in St. Peter's Cathedral and vaulted him to fame as a young man. Michelangelo returned to the subject of the Pieta as an old man. This is the second to last statue he made. His last statue, also unfinished, is another Pieta.

The larger than life statue shows not just Mary, but Nicodemus and another woman (an angel? Mary Magdalene?) supporting Christ's body after he has been removed from the cross. Most of the statue is unfinished. Christ's torso and arms are the most finished parts of the statue, showing Michelangelo's skill with marble.

Here is a view from the side. Some of the stone is very rough cut.

This is the view of the back, showing deep grooves from Michelangelo's chisels.

This is the right side of the statue.

Art scholars call this "the Bandini Pieta" named after the banker who purchased it after Michelangelo destroyed it. Michelangelo began this sculpture in Rome in 1547 when he was 72 years old. He intended it would decorate the church where he assumed he would be buried. In 1555, he broke the statue into pieces, possibly because he found a flaw in the marble that made it impossible to finish the way he wanted, certainly because he was dissatisfied with it. Around the same time, he began working on his final sculpture, another Pieta. In 1555, a Michelangelo was very much a Michelangelo, even if the artist didn't like his own. His friends put the statue back together again and Francesco Bandini bought it. In 1671, Cosimo III de Medici bought the statue and it was moved to Florence, first displayed inside the Duomo before being moved to the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in 1981.

The museum displays the statue in its own room with the title "Tribuna de Michelangelo." We like the museum's name for the statue better than calling it the Bandini Pieta: Michelangelo's Most Personal Pieta. Even though it is unfinished, you can recognize Michelangelo's own face as the face of Nicodemus.

The museum displays this replica of part of the statue with a notice that says "visitors can touch." It is a powerful moment to be invited to touch the face of the Savior, even carved out of stone.

How does it change a person to work on a statue like this year after year? What was Michelangelo thinking about as he chose to portray himself as Nicodemus, a believer, but maybe someone who was reluctant to commit fully until the end of Christ's mortal life? And is there a place in this story for us, as we sat in the quiet room in the museum and, in our contemplation, imagined what it might have been like to sit at the foot of the Cross.

The museum provides some insight by posting a sonnet Michelangelo wrote during the same period of time he was working on the Pieta. The gold lettering is challenging to read, so we'll include the poem below:

Rime

The course of my life has brought me now
Through a stormy sea, in a frail ship,
To the common port, where, landing,
We account for every deed, wretched or holy.

So that I finally see
How wrong the fond illusion was
That made art my idol and king
Leading me to want what harmed me.

My amorous fancies, once foolish and happy,
What sense have they now that I approach two deaths
The first of which I know is sure, the second threatening.

Let neither painting nor carving any longer calm
My soul turned to that divine love
Who to embrace us opened his arms upon the cross.