The anguish of a genius
By a strange twist of fate, Michelangelo himself, known for his irascible characterand dissatisfied with the second version of the “Pietà” made in 1547, he attacked it with a hammer some years later, and the marks are still seen today on the shoulder of Jesus and the hand of Mary.
When embarking on the second version, which would never end, the artist, then 72 years old and suffering from depression, felt that death was approaching after having lived through the ups and downs of history, in particular the sack of Rome in 1527.
The exhibition of these three works “allows us to take stock of Michelangelo’s style, of its evolution during the fifty years that separate the first Pietà from the other two and of the drastic and surprising transformation between the last two”, explained Timothy Verdon.
The third “Pietà”, called Rondanini, is undoubtedly the most surprising for a less informed public: dazzling in its modernity, the sculpture, about two meters high, begun around 1552, was found in the artist’s Roman residence after his death.
Its unfinished character gives the work a fragile, imperfect touch, communicating the human anguish of someone who is one step away from death, who feared divine judgment and had taken a vow of poverty.
Under the motto “You don’t think how much blood it costs“, from the Paradise of Dante Alighieri, which Michelangelo wrote shortly before his death on a drawing of the Pieta, the exhibition opens on Thursday, open until August 1 and organized on the occasion of the event “Mediterranean border of peace 2022” , which will bring together the bishops and mayors of the Mediterranean in Florence and in which Pope Francis will participate next Sunday.