Pietá - Vatican City
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Ariberna
N 41° 54.136 E 012° 27.309
33T E 288911 N 4642057
Michelangelo's Piety in Vatican City
Waymark Code: WM13X46
Location: Vatican City State
Date Posted: 03/05/2021
Views: 4
In a book we have its beginning and its end in our hands. A body of words extended, delivered, that has measured our time filling it with its life. A short story while our eyes are leafing through it but that does not end when it ends. A body that will always be waiting for us, like the one we contemplate in Michelangelo's Pieta.
The Pieta of Michelangelo in St. Peter's Basilica
Entering St. Peter's Basilica , in the first chapel on the right we find Michelangelo's Pietà (La Pietà di Michelangelo).
Indeed, seeing Maria sitting, young, with that abandoned body that seems so small in her hands, it is as if she had an open book. It could be a young girl holding her young son on her lap and yet holding her dead son. Delivered, beginning and end in that body of Word, she picks it up, meditates it, re-flexes on that spine open at her waist.
She contemplates like the writer who sees his work finished and realizes what he already knew when writing it: it does not belong to him. He does not despair or scream, does not raise his eyes imploringly or look at us for an account. She for me represents the conscious acceptance of the mission accomplished mixed with "the joy of not having time for hatred" (Francisco Javier Irazoki, One hundred and ninety mirrors ), not even with her lying son in her arms. And it is that in his hands he has a masterpiece. We could say that she is, in effect, the teacher who has concocted it and teaches it to us, who brings us directly closer to the text, to the source. He keeps it with one strong hand but with the other he is passing it on. Here, you read.
Michelangelo's Pietà, late 15th century and early 16th century in Rome
When Michelangelo received the commission from Cardinal Jean de Bilhères, Charles VIII's ambassador, to carry out a 'Pietà' (Mary with her dead son), he was only 22 years old. The sculpture was destined for the tomb of the cardinal in the Chapel of Santa Petronila of the old Basilica of San Pedro. It is the month of November 1497. He had arrived in Rome the previous year to give an explanation to Cardinal Riario about a certain sculpture of Cupid sold as from Roman times. A 'slip' that became, through Jacopo Galli, the admiration and origin of several commissions. The most important and famous is this Pieta, the only work that will bear his signature. Then, spreading his fame, he won't need it.
The young Michelangelo will personally go to Carrara to choose the block of marble and will accompany him on his journey to Rome. And from those mountains to this summit.
piedad miguelangel basilica san pedro
Maria is sitting on a rock but it is she herself who looks like a mountain. Beginning and end. As at the beginning in her entrails, of lava, a son is formed also now she is, equally young, the lap in which to fall dead, a land of fertile ashes for this seed. She is strong, a delicate rock, the mountain to go to to get closer to heaven and converse with God who makes himself felt in the intimate cavity of a cave like a whisper, like a breeze.
Down here, instead, the voice of thunder and storm is heard. Sitting up there, in the darkest hour, there is light, shelter and serene calm. Here, you can still feel the earthquake that slices the veil of the temple and uncovers the tombstones. There, even the naked body does not seem helpless, as if it were wrapped in a veil of pity and affection more real than the folds of her dress. Down here, descending in the century to the mud, to the cold, the nakedness and the pain, tears start again, an emotion that immerses us in time and raises hands and screams. Up there an always young voice remains with the last word, silent, in the mouth and in the hands. Everything is written.
The "Official Tourism" URL link to the attraction: [Web Link]
Hours of Operation:
From October to March: from 7:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. From April to September: from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The dome opens an hour later and closes an hour earlier.
Admission Prices:
To the basilic is free
Approximate amount of time needed to fully experience the attraction: Half of a day (2-5 hours)
Transportation options to the attraction: Personal Vehicle Only
The attraction’s own URL: Not listed
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