Completing Michelangelo’s Final Pietà – by Joseph Verzi
Most people are familiar with the first Pietà sculpted by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1499 and currently on display in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. This work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his Mother Mary after the Crucifixion. It is an important work of art, as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with materialism and is one of the most highly finished works of art by Michelangelo. Upon its completion, the world declared that Michelangelo’s Pietà surpassed not only the sculptures of his contemporaries but even those of the ancient Greeks and Romans; the standards by which all art was judged. This work of art is even more remarkable when we remind ourselves that at the time, Michelangelo was only 24 years old.
This article is about Michelangelo’s final Pietà, the one he began working on around 1550 and was still working on six days before his death in 1564. This is not only his last work of art, but probably his least completed work of art. This Pietà known as the Rondanini Pietà is on display in Milan, Italy, in the Castello Sforzesco Museum of Ancient Art. At nearly eighty-nine years of age, Michelangelo had become increasingly preoccupied with his own mortality, and it is appropriate that the Rondanini Pietà, haunting and shattered, would squeeze from him his last artistic breath. Imagine Michelangelo with trembling hands, now only a few days from death, struggling to summarize his lifelong spiritual journey in the achingly expressive distortion of his last sculpture.
The Rondanini Pietà is a composition of two figures; an exhausted dying Christ in the foreground and a compassionately supportive Madonna who stands above and behind him. It is entirely incomplete; the forms have barely begun to emerge from the marble. Cut crudely from a white Carrara block, two bodies are barely distinguishable one from another, and the scaling and gouging marks of the sculptor’s roughest tools are clearly evident on all surfaces. It is an assemblage of pieces in the truest sense. Christ’s right leg and the Madonna’s left thigh are fully polished renditions of human parts, and a section of a finished right arm, unconnected to any part of either figure, perches to one side. The heads and faces above are only hints, and below coarsely shaped arms emerge and intertwine the figures. The left leg of the Madonna is fully described, as are the two legs of Christ, and his feet.
There are vestiges of earlier schemes – rejected by the artist. The position of the heads seems to have been an object of uncertainty, and even in the drawings which were studies for this piece, their attitude has been altered many times. Clearly the disengaged thrusting arm is a part of an earlier version. There are vague traces of the forehead and hairline of another Christ, above and to the right of the remaining one, and a forehead and eyes of another Mary are also evident. Christ’s face has been broken off, and barely enough stone remains to have started construction of another – the same is true of His torso. The entire rear of the sculpture is completely in rough form, yet the gentle curve imparted to the Madonna’s back inspires wonder as to whether she truly supports Christ, or if she is being supported by him. Articulation of the facial features has only just begun, both figures seem to gaze downward serenely. One body is barely distinct from another, yet they seem to be reaching, groping for one another in a mutual plea for help. There is hardly a smooth finished surface to be found, yet through the scalar marks the tenderness of the Madonna and the passion of a dying Jesus are clear. This moving work of art clearly represents the scene of Christ’s removal from the cross.
This brings us to 2013 in North Arlington, New Jersey, where the Archdiocese of Newark is completing the largest Catholic Mausoleum in The United States at Holy Cross Cemetery, and is deciding on the last of thirty major works of art. This final work of art is to be placed on an outdoor terrace of the new mausoleum overlooking the 209 acre cemetery. It was decided that a monumental marble statue will be necessary to complete the new project, one that will evangelize to the millions of annual cemetery visitors. Reverend Thomas Dente, director of the Archdiocese Office of Divine Worship, who is responsible to develop the religious themes for the new mausoleum, suggested that the artwork chosen for this location consist of a large cross in honor of the cemetery name and contain both the figures of Christ and His Mother Mary. During our research concerning the new theme we discovered the story of the incomplete Rondanini Pietà and decided to pursue the idea of commissioning a statue based on the completion of this work of art by Michelangelo.
The new statue will be 10 feet tall carved in white Carrara marble and will include an integral 13 foot cross, hand carved from a rare species of wood, and be placed on a custom designed 4 foot granite columbarium base containing 24 niches.
Several companies were contacted to provide bids for the project. Pedrini Sculptors from Carrara, Italy was chosen to produce the statue. Pedrini Sculptors is located in the shadows of the imposing Apuan Mountains, the same mountain where 500 years ago, Michelangelo would go to claim his marble for his own masterpieces. It is the same quarry where Pedrini Sculptors (thanks to a 70 plus year relationship with the exclusive quarry) has selected the marble to create another masterpiece 500 years later.
There have been several collaborations throughout this project, each one as significant and critical as the next. A dance, if you will, among collaborators that goes back decades, to fathers and grandfathers; from the Carrara Marble Quarry; to the artist who created the vision on paper; the artist who created the scale clay model; the sculptors chiseling away in their newspaper hats, (the only material to which marble dust will not cling).
First a sketch of the original Pietà Rondanini was prepared. That sketch was used to create the preliminary drawing for the new statue. Once the drawing was approved by Catholic Cemeteries and Fr. Dente, a final sketch including the wooden cross was completed. Giancarlo, one of Pedrini’s master artists created a clay model from the sketch, with an understanding of the vision to be achieved. The model is a third of the actual size. Once the model was approved, it stepped into the worthy hands of Mario and Roberto Pedrini, who then created the plaster mold. With this mold, another team of Pedrini artists took over and began to sculpt away, to reveal the Pietà of Rondanini, using the same tools as Michelangelo, a pair of hands, a chisel and a century’s old tradition of sculpting.
Pedrini has been humbled by this experience and feels there are many watching, not only here but from above as well. To quote Pedrini’s master designer Filippo, the artist who created the vision of a completed Rondanini… “I only hope that when I get to the other side, Michelangelo will greet me and be happy at what I have done with his work.”
At the cross her station keeping,
Mary stood in sorrow weeping
When her Son was crucified.
While she waited in her anguish,
Seeing Christ in torment languish,
Bitter sorrow pierced her heart.
With what pain and desolation,
With what noble resignation,
Mary watched her dying Son.
Ever-patient in her yearning
Though her tear-filled eyes were burning,
Mary gazed upon her Son.
Who, that sorrow contemplating,
On that passion meditating,
Would not share the Virgin’s grief?
Christ she saw, for our salvation,
Scourged with cruel acclamation,
Bruised and beaten by the rod.
Christ she saw with life-blood failing,
All her anguish unavailing,
Saw him breathe his very last.
Mary, fount of love’s devotion,
Let me share with true emotion
All the sorrow you endured.
Virgin, ever interceding,
Hear me in my fervent pleading:
Fire me with your love of Christ.
Mother, may this prayer be granted:
That Christ’s love may be implanted
In the depths of my poor soul.
At the cross, your sorrow sharing,
All your grief and torment bearing,
Let me stand and mourn with you.
Fairest maid of all creation,
Queen of hope and consolation,
Let me feel your grief sublime.
Virgin, in your love befriend me,
At the Judgment Day defend me.
Help me by your constant prayer.
Savior, when my life shall leave me,
Through your mother’s prayers
receive me
With the fruits of victory.
Virgin of all virgins blest!
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share your grief divine
Let me, to my latest breath,
In my body bear the death
Of your dying Son divine.
Wounded with His every wound,
Steep my soul till it has swooned
In His very Blood away.
Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
Lest in flames I burn and die,
In His awe-full judgment day.
Savior, when my life shall leave me,
Through your mother’s prayers
receive me
With the fruits of victory.
While my body here decays
May my soul your goodness praise,
Safe in heaven eternally. Amen Alleluia.