Pietà for Vittoria Colonna
Pietà for Vittoria Colonna | |
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Michelangelo Buonarroti | |
Year | about 1538–44 |
Type | Black chalk on cardboard |
Dimensions | 28.9 cm × 18.9 cm (11.4 in × 7.4 in) |
Location | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston |
The Pietà for Vittoria Colonna is a black chalk drawing on cardboard (28.9×18.9 cm) attributed to
History
Michelangelo became acquainted with Vittoria Colonna around 1538.[2] Their lively friendship gained Michelangelo admission to her social circles, and he became acquainted with issues of church reform. For Colonna, Michelangelo executed several paintings in the fifth decade of the sixteenth century. All of them are now lost or of controversial attribution, but several sketches and copies by students and admirers of Michelangelo have been preserved.
Apart from a famous Crucifixion, Michelangelo's most notable work for Vittoria Colonna is a Pietà, of which a remarkable drawing is exhibited at Boston. It is not certain that this work was painted by Michelangelo, but it is described by Ascanio Condivi. It has at any rate proved influential: There are several copies by students of lesser skill in Florence and Rome, a reworking by Ludovico Buti and an adaptation by Lavinia Fontana.[1]
In 2007, the Milanese restaurator and art historian
Description and style
The theme of the
In this verse from canto 29 of the Paradiso, Beatrice deplores the lack of appreciation for the martyrs' sacrifices. The quote reflects Michelangelo's and Colonna's religious convictions. Both belonged to Roman groups that focused on achieving salvation by faith through prayerful contemplation of sacred history, as does their poetry of this period. "Michelangelo’s gift", according to James M. Saslow, "thus offered consoling testimony to their shared conviction that the savior’s tragic death is also a cause for joy, the climax of God’s divine comedy that offers each believing soul the hope of a happy ending."[1]
Gallery of other versions
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The Rochester Pietà
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The Florence Pietà
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The Pietà by Ludovico Buti
See also
Bibliography
- Antonio Forcellino, The Lost Michelangelos, trans. Lucinda Byatt, Blackwell Pub., 2011, ISBN 978-0-7456-5203-0
- Lutz Heusinger, Michelangelo, in I protagonisti dell'arte italiana, Scala Group, Firenze 2001. ISBN 88-8117-091-4
- James M. Saslow, "Pietà," in Eye of the Beholder, ed. by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003), p. 81.