The Pieta - Michelangelo

 The Pieta is a sculpture by Michelangelo that is considered one of the greatest works of art ever created. When Michelangelo was 23 years old, he was commissioned by a cardinal to produce “the most beautiful work of marble in Rome, one that no living artist could better.” It was to capture the moment the Virgin Mary held Christ in her arms after he was taken down from the cross. 

Accepting the challenge, the relatively unknown young man got to work on a block of Carrara marble. Less than 2 years later, the work was installed at the cardinal's grave, on the very same day he died. When revealed, it was met with sheer disbelief. Most doubted it was the young man’s work, so he carved into the sash across Mary's chest: “Michelangelo Buonarroti of Florence made this.” 

La Pietà embodies the power of beauty as a transcendent force. It takes the worst possible human tragedy — the loss of a grieving parent — and transforms it into something that helps you to instead see the ecstatic joy of human life. Michelangelo saw in the dead body of Christ such compassionate suffering that it drove him to create the most beautiful thing ever hewn from a block of marble. Vasari called it a “miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh.” La Pietà now lives at St. Peter’s Basilica, where it has been for over 500 years.