Michelangelo’s Pietà Vaticana, between history and curiosity
Roman monuments: Michelangelo’s Pietà Vaticana, between history and curiosity.
The Pietà di San Pietro (or Vaticana), made by Michelangelo Buonarroti when he was 20 years old, is now located in the basilica of San Pietro in the Vatican, and was sculpted between 1497 and 1499. It is one of the great masterpieces of art. world. The Pietà is now located in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, protected by a special bulletproof crystal wall. This is the only work of art that bears the author’s signature.
During Michelangelo’s first stay in Rome, from 1496 to 1501, the artist forged a relationship of friendship and collaboration with the banker Jacopo Galli, who acted as an intermediary and guarantor in various commissions linked to a group of cardinals. One of the most prestigious was the one for the marble Pieta for the French cardinal Jean de Bilhères, ambassador of Charles VIII to the Vatican.
In 1497 Michelangelo received a third of the five hundred ducats agreed as an advance to start the work. He left for Carrara to choose a piece of marble of excellent quality. The statue was ready in 1499 and destined for the chapel of Santa Petronilla. The work immediately aroused great admiration and Michelangelo signed it only later, when he heard two men praise the statue but attribute it to the Lombard sculptor Cristoforo Solari.
Shortly before 1517 the work was moved to the sacristy of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Its current location, in the first chapel to the right of the nave of the basilica, dates back to 1749. In 1964 the Pietà was lent by the Holy See to the New York World’s Fair 1964 (the Universal Exposition of New York). It was the only time it was moved from St. Peter’s Basilica. On May 21, 1972, the day of Pentecost, a thirty-four-year-old Australian geologist of Hungarian origin named László Tóth, evading surveillance, managed to hit Michelangelo’s work with a hammer fifteen times.
The Pieta suffered very serious damage, especially on the Virgin: the blows of the hammer had broken off about fifty fragments, breaking her left arm and shattering her elbow, while on her face her nose had been almost destroyed, as well as her eyelids. The restoration was started almost immediately, after a phase of study, and was carried out by reusing as much as possible the original fragments, as well as a mixture based on glue and marble dust. The author of the scar was recognized as mentally ill. Since then, the Pietà has been protected by a special bulletproof crystal wall.
