Rondanini Pietà

Sculpture by Michelangelo

Rondanini Pietà

The sculpture in 2024

Artist| Michelangelo
Year| 1564
Type| Stone
Dimensions| 195 cm (77 in)
Location| Castello Sforzesco, Milan
Preceded by| The Deposition (Michelangelo)
Followed by| The Entombment (Michelangelo)

The Rondanini Pietà is a marble sculpture that Michelangelo worked on from 1552 until the last days of his life, in 1564. Several sources indicate that there were actually three versions, with this one being the last.[1][2] The name Rondanini refers to the fact that the sculpture stood for centuries in the courtyard at the Palazzo Rondanini [it] (also known as Palazzo Rondinini) in Rome.[3] Certain sources point out that biographer Giorgio Vasari had referred to this Pietà in 1550, suggesting that the first version may already have been underway at that time.[4] The work is now in the Museo della Pietà Rondanini that was inaugurated in 2015 at Sforza Castle in Milan.[5]

This final sculpture revisited the theme of the Virgin Mary mourning over the emaciated body of the dead Christ, which he had first explored in his Pietà of 1499. Like his late series of drawings of the Crucifixion and the sculpture of the Deposition of Christ intended for his own tomb, it was produced at a time when Michelangelo's sense of his own mortality was growing.[6] He had worked on the sculpture all day, just six days before his death.[7]

The Rondanini Pietà was begun before The Deposition of Christ was completed in 1555. In his dying days, Michelangelo hacked at the marble block until only the dismembered right arm of Christ survived from the sculpture as originally conceived. The elongated Virgin and Christ are a departure from the idealised figures that exemplified the sculptor's earlier style, and have been said to bear more of a resemblance to the attenuated figures of Gothic sculpture than those of the Renaissance.[8][9] Some also suggest that the elongated figures are reminiscent of the style used in Mannerism.[10][11]

The unfinished quality of the work fits with Michelangelo's late progress away from naturalism and humanism and toward a mystical Neoplatonism, in which he conceived of a sculpture as latent in the marble and requiring merely the removal of superfluous material; in this manner, he seems to have deprived his human symbols of corporeal quality in an attempt to convey directly a purely spiritual idea.[12]

It has also been suggested that the sculpture should not be considered unfinished, but a work in a continuous process of being made visible by the viewer as he or she moves around to see it from multiple angles.[13]

South African visual artist Marlene Dumas based her 2012 painting Homage to Michelangelo on the Rondanini Pietà.[14]

## See also

[edit]

* List of statues of Jesus
* List of works by Michelangelo

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Enrica Crispino (2001). Auguste Tosone (ed.). Michelangelo. Ediz. Inglese. Translated by Silvia Silvestri. Giunti Editore. p. 117\. ISBN 88-09-02274-2.
2. ^ The final period: Last Judgment, frescoes of the Pauline Chapel, last Pietàs. Princeton University Press. 1960. p. 154.
3. ^ The Pietà Rondanini Retrieved 4 July 2018.
4. ^ Archana Srinivasan (September 2004). World Famous Artists. Sura Books. p. 18\. ISBN 81-7478-522-1.
5. ^ "Museo della Pietà Rondanini". Retrieved 13 February 2023.
6. ^ Emma Barker; Nick Webb; Kim Woods, eds. (1999). The Changing Status of the Artist. Yale University Press. p. 23\. ISBN 0-300-07740-8.
7. ^ (11 September 2010), The Rondanini Pieta Retrieved 4 July 2018.
8. ^ Rondanini Pieta Retrieved 4 July 2018.
9. ^ "Rondanini Pietà, last Michelangelo's masterpiece". The Italo-Americano. 20 April 2015. Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
10. ^ L. E. Semler (1998). The English Mannerist Poets and the Visual Arts. Dickinson University Press. p. 247\. ISBN 0-8386-3759-0.
11. ^ Cracking the ACT 2016. The Princeton Review/ACT. 2015. p. 264\. ISBN 978-1-101-88198-9. ISSN 1059-101X. `{{cite book}}`: `|journal=` ignored (help)
12. ^ Blunt, Anthony (1994). Artistic theory in Italy, 1450-1600. Internet Archive. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-881050-6.
13. ^ Ivana Vranic (2010). Visibility of Sculpted Matter and Form: Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà and the Ontological Nature of Sculpture (Thesis). University of British Columbia Press. doi:10.14288/1.0071176.
14. ^ Marlene Dumas (2012). Written in the Stars. Milan: Sorte. pp. 39–43. ISBN 978-8836622856.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Pietà Rondanini at Wikimedia Commons

* v
* t
* e

Michelangelo

* List of works
* ✻ attributed
* †lost

Sculptures

| Florence, c. 1488–1492|

* Head of a Faun†
* Madonna of the Stairs
* Battle of the Centaurs
* Crucifix

|

Bologna, 1494–1495|

* Additions to the Arca di San Domenico
* Saint Petronius
* Saint Proculus
* Angel

Rome, 1496–1500|

* Sleeping Cupid†
* Bacchus
* Standing Cupid†
* Pietà

Florence, 1501–1505|

* David
* Madonna of Bruges
* Additions to the Piccolomini Altarpiece
* Saints Peter, Paul, Pius and Gregory
* Pitti Tondo
* Taddei Tondo
* Saint Matthew
* Rothschild Bronzes

Tomb of Julius II, 1505–1545|

* Moses
* Rebellious Slave
* Dying Slave
* Young Slave
* Bearded Slave
* Atlas Slave
* Awakening Slave
* The Genius of Victory
* Rachel
* Leah

Florence, 1516–1534|

* Christ Carrying the Cross
* Medici Chapel
* Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours
* Night
* Day
* Dusk
* Dawn
* Medici Madonna
* Apollo
* Crouching Boy

Rome, 1534–1564|

* Brutus
* Florentine Pietà
* Palestrina Pietà ✻
* Rondanini Pietà

Paintings

| Panel paintings|

* The Torment of Saint Anthony
* Manchester Madonna
* The Entombment
* Doni Tondo
* Leda and the Swan†

|

Salone dei Cinquecento|

* Battle of Cascina†

Sistine Chapel
(ceiling gallery)|

* Ceiling
* Separation of Light from Darkness
* The Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Plants
* The Creation of Adam
* Prophet Daniel
* Prophet Isaiah
* Prophet Jeremiah
* Prophet Joel
* Prophet Jonah
* The Last Judgment

Pauline Chapel|

* The Crucifixion of Saint Peter
* The Conversion of Saul

Architecture

| Florence|

* New Sacristy and Laurentian Library in the Basilica of San Lorenzo

|

Rome|

* Capitoline Museums
* Piazza del Campidoglio
* Palazzo Farnese
* St. Peter's Basilica
* Tor San Michele ✻
* San Giovanni dei Fiorentini
* Porta Pia
* Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

Works on paper, milieu, etc.

| Works on paper|

* Study of a Kneeling Nude Girl for The Entombment
* Male Back with a Flag
* Studies for the Libyan Sibyl
* The Punishment of Tityus
* Pietà for Vittoria Colonna
* Epifania

|

Milieu|

* Cecchino dei Bracci
* Tommaso dei Cavalieri
* Vittoria Colonna
* Ascanio Condivi
* Gherardo Perini
* Sebastiano del Piombo
* Febo di Poggio
* Luigi del Riccio

Related|

* Art patronage of Julius II
* Casa Buonarroti
* Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
* Michelangelo and the Medici
* Replicas of David
* Replicas of the Pietà
* Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes
* The Titan: Story of Michelangelo (1950 documentary)
* The Agony and the Ecstasy (1961 novel, 1965 film)
* A Season of Giants (1990 TV film)
* Michelangelo (crater)
* Michelangelo quadrangle

This article about a sculpture in Italy is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[c.]: circa