Michelangelo Buonarroti known as the high Renaissance master has created some of the most heroic Renaissance art, including the Pietà in St. Peter’s Cathedral (1499). The Pietà was created in both painting and sculpture featuring Madonna holding the corpse of Jesus. Which captured a moment of sorrowful meditation. This is why the Pietà should continue to be preserved, because it transformed the late medieval religious worship into a great importance statement on the meaning of Christian sacrifice. Michelangelo Buonarroti was twenty-one years old when he agreed to make the marble Pietà that would serve as a tomb monument in Old Saint peter’s Cathedral in Rome. In the sculpture Michelangelo strategically made Madonna larger compared to Jesus …show more content…
The typical art work of the Renaissance included the portraying of religious images, like Madonna. These common art works were viewed and used as devotional objects in religious rituals by contemporary audiences of the period. For example Leonardo’s most known art work was the Last Supper that covers an end wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. It is one of many works of art that represents religious narrative. Raphael Sanzio in the other hand “skillfully expressed the classical ideals of beauty, serenity and harmony”(History Staff), this lead to the creation of The Alba …show more content…
People who visited the artwork in St. Peter’s Cathedral used it as a devotional object that expressed the emotional aspects of the lives of Jesus and Madonna. This was important to them because it was a popular concern especially to the elite. The Pietà being the only art work Michelangelo has ever signed “gave him the opportunity to establish his reputation and public image” in an early age (Aileen June Wang). People who had access to the work thought that his signature above the heart of the Virgin Mary was a “visualization of an archangel's closeness to divinity” (Aileen June Wang). Being the first artist to place his signature close to the sacred figures chest was unusual, even inappropriate, by contemporaries. But, the people in its contemporary time still admired the sculpture for its