Michelangelo's Florence Pietà

Bibliographic Information

Michelangelo's Florence Pietà

by Jack Wasserman

Princeton University Press, c2003

  • : cloth

Available at  / 9 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

With contributions: Franca Trinchieri Camiz, Timothy Verdon, and Peter Rockwell

Technical studies: ENEA, Opificio delle Pietre Dure, and IBM

New photographs: Aurelio Amendola

Description and Table of Contents

Description

A thorough and revealing study of one of Michelangelo's most beautiful, dramatic, and debated works of art: the Florence Pieta. The artist designed the monumental statue late in life for his own tomb, but after a decade of intermittent labour he badly damaged the work, which was later repaired by an assistant. Jack Wasserman, the book's editor and main author, enlists the expertise of scholars Timothy Verdon and Franca Trinchieri Camiz, sculptor Peter Rockwell, and three teams of scientists to understand a work of extraordinary emotional power. By examining all aspects of the statue's depiction of Christ and of his physical relationship to the other figures, especially the Virgin, this book brings to life Michelangelo's great struggle to give conclusive form to his own relationship to God - a relationship unmistakably reflected in the artist's representation of himself as the bearded man supporting Christ. Wasserman reaches a striking conclusion about why Michelangelo mutilated the statue, a conclusion sure to inspire lively debate. He seeks to resolve a host of other questions such as: What religious message did Michelangelo seek to convey? Is the Pieta a "pieta" at all? As all lo

Table of Contents

Preface 9 Introduction 17 I. CREATION AND HISTORY 1. Origin and Function 25 2. Subject, Content, and Form 33 3. The Destruction 59 4. The Reconstruction 75 5. The Pieta in Rome by Franca Trinchieri Camiz 99 6. The Pieta in Florence 109 7. Critical Reception 119 8. Michaelangelo and the Body of Christ: Religious Meaning in the Florence Pieta by Timothy Verdon 127 Notes to Part I 149

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