Michelangelo's Pietà: Why Is Mary Younger Than Jesus?

Do you ever wonder why, in Michelangelo's Pietà, the Virgin Mary looks like she's 14 but her son Jesus looks like he's 33? My friends, Michelangelo had an answer for that, and it was not humble. Neither was the signature he carved across her chest. In this episode of Art History Fun with Dr. Bryan, we look at the sculpture that launched Michelangelo's career. He signed the contract in 1498, finished around 1499 at just 24 years old, and in between gave the Renaissance its ultimate mic drop. We'll follow young Michelangelo from Caprese and Florence to Ghirlandaio's workshop and Lorenzo de' Medici's sculpture garden, see how a French cardinal's burial-chapel commission brought a northern European subject to Rome, and look at how Michelangelo solved a real sculptural problem: laying a grown man across a woman's lap without it looking like a furniture-moving accident. His answer was a pyramid of marble drapery polished so smooth you forget it started as a rough quarry block. Then the stories: why this Christ looks peaceful instead of tortured, how Michelangelo defended Mary's youthful face, the tale (courtesy of Vasari, art history's favorite dramatic gossip columnist) of the signature carved by moonlight, why the Pietà sits behind bulletproof glass in St. Peter's Basilica today, and the very different Pietà Michelangelo was still carving in the last days of his life. CHAPTERS 0:00 Why does Mary look younger than Jesus? [0:00] The Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica [0:00] The 1972 attack and the bulletproof glass [0:00] Young Michelangelo: Florence and the Medici [0:00] A French cardinal's commission [0:00] What is a pietà? [0:00] The pyramid composition and the marble [0:00] A peaceful Christ [0:00] Mary's age and Michelangelo's answer [0:00] The signature on the sash [0:00] The Rondanini Pietà: Michelangelo's last work [0:00] Superhuman David, human Pietà WATCH NEXT If the Pietà was Michelangelo's rookie of the year, his David was MVP →    • Carved From a Block Nobody Wanted | Michel...   THE MICHELANGELO SERIES From the Pietà to the David to the Sistine ceiling, in order →    • Michelangelo: Pietà, David, and the Sistin...   Have you seen the Pietà in person at St. Peter's? Tell me about it in the comments. New art history videos every day. Subscribe so you don't miss the next masterpiece, and let's enjoy some art together. FIND US ON FACEBOOK Art History Fun with Dr. Bryan → [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... I'm Dr. Bryan Zygmont, professor of art history at Mount St. Mary's University. Thanks for sticking around for nine exceptional minutes! #Pieta #Michelangelo #ArtHistory