Look at these pictures of the Pieta, while listening to Andrea Bocelli

[Joe Chi Minh]

singing Panis Angelicus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHKQYFgkcB8&feature=related



http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Pieta/Pieta.htm

This last link also gives a potted history of the Pieta. Michelangelo was apparently just 24 years old, when he sculpted it out of a single piece of marble.

[47of74]

1. I got to see the Pieta

Very nice picture. I got to see the Pieta myself last summer when I went to Italy.

[Joe Chi Minh]

2. Wow. I don't normally bother about seeing an original, but the Pieta

is very special.

[47of74]

3. Here's the two pictures I took of the pieta

They did a great job restoring the pieta after it was damaged by the guy who went at it with a hammer. Now it's behind glass, so we didn't get all that close to it.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. Lucky you.

[Fire1]

6. That's a shame. Glad I got to see it before the glass went up. n/t

[elleng]

8. Ditto

[Princess Turandot]

4. There is a full sized bronze cast of it in NYC..

It's in Old St. Patricks Cathedral, which is near Little Italy. The Vatican had a mold made from the actual statue; this was cast in 1932. (I don't know if there are others, or why this one is in this church.)

Unfortunately, while the church is very beautiful inside, there isn't any place to put the statue, so it is in the vestibule, looking a little out of place. Here's a so-so pic of it; I darkened the background, so the stairway to the choir loft does not show.



I saw the original a few times when it was displayed at the Vatican pavilion at the NY Worlds Fair, in 1964-1965, and saw it again at the Basilica later on, before the crazed geologist attacked it. It is one of the most beautiful things that I've ever seen.

And a bit of trivia: IIRC this was the only work of his which Michelangelo ever put his name on.

[47of74]

7. You can see the signature in the first photo

But not my pictures. Even with zoom I was too far away to get a good shot which showed the signature, and the glass didn't help matters.

[elleng]

9. Hey Princess,

I WORKED at the Fair!



:hi:

[Joe Chi Minh]

10. apparently, he'd overheard people attributing it to other well-known

sculptors, so engraved his signature. But later, he wished he hadn't.

He must have had a fine sense of moral beauty as well, I think. Though I don't imagine God would have inspired him to create such a sublime master-piece, if he hadn't. Not that it is true of all artistic master-pieces, but this is very special, because of its subject matter, isn't it?

[47of74]

11. This made me think of The Last Judgment in the Sistine

When Michelangelo was working on the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel he got wind of Biagio da Cesena complaining about the painting. Next thing Cesena knew, his face was on the paiting, complete with donkey ears and a Pope who said leave it on there.

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. The Italians are nothing if not spirited, then as now.

[47of74]

13. Probably why I'm so fond of them.