Pietà
Michelangelo's marble of the Virgin Mary cradling the body of the crucified Christ — the canonical image of grief.
Origin
Michelangelo carved it between 1498 and 1499, when he was twenty-three, for a French cardinal who wanted a tomb monument in St. Peter's. It is the only work Michelangelo ever signed — a sash across Mary's chest reads 'MICHAEL ANGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTINUS FACIEBAT' ('Michelangelo Buonarroti of Florence made this'). The Virgin is rendered improbably young — Michelangelo argued that her purity preserved her youth. In 1972 a Hungarian-Australian geologist attacked it with a hammer, shouting 'I am Jesus Christ.' Restored; now behind bulletproof glass in St. Peter's.
Modern usage
The pose — adult body across a seated woman's lap — is the template for every 'mother holding dead son' image in journalism, war photography, and film since. The 2015 Vietnam War photo of a woman cradling a man, and countless press photos from Aleppo and Gaza, were captioned 'Pietà' by editors who knew exactly what readers would see. The Madonna album Like a Prayer cover quotes it.
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