Michelangelo was an architect, engineer, poet, sculptor and a great man of the Italian Renaissance who specialized in the design of sculptures of religious subjects. He was born to a government agent in Italy on March 6, 1475 and died on February 18, 1564. By the age of thirteen, Michelangelo had attended school and was beginning his career in sculpture, drawing and carving by training an apprentice with a famous Florentine painter named Domenico Ghirlandaio. Although influenced by Ghirlandaio, Michelangelo tried to hide it because he wanted to convey to people that he was a completely self-taught artist. After almost a year of working as a painter he ended the activity and moved on to sculpture. As a result, he found himself in the roots of the Medici family, an influential family in Italy. It was soon after the fall of the Medici family's reign that Michelangelo fled to the Italian city of Rome, a major artistic center of the time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Rome, he created his first marble sculpture at the age of twenty-three. This sculpture was the famous Pietà which depicted an image of Mary holding the lifeless body of her son Jesus Christ immediately after he had been dropped from the cross where he had been crucified. The sculpture was a wonderful design full of creativity and one of the largest Michelangelo statues ever created. Due to his success as a sculptor, Pope Julius II commissioned him to paint for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. In Rome, at the age of about 15, he created his first marble sculpture, the famous Pietà. 23 years old. The sculpture depicted an image of Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding the lifeless body of her son Jesus Christ immediately after he was dropped from the cross where he had been crucified. It was such a wonderful drawing filled with a lot of creativity and one of the very first larger statues he had made in his life. Therefore following this he was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint for the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel in the Vatican, Rome. This, however, proved to be one of his greatest works. The sculpture covered 1,000 square meters and depicted several episodes from the Old Testament, each of which carried a message about the creation of the world. For example, they showed scenes of Adam and Eve, the reigns of Noah, and the like. Messages from Old Testament prophets accompanied by other figures were also included (http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Pieta/Pieta.htm). He began his work of painting the ceiling of the Sistene chapel in the year 1508 and later completed in the year 1512. After its completion, Pope Julius still wanted him to design a statue for his tomb by making 40 marble statues but unfortunately he was unable to complete forty and only three were made. The Pietà is a great masterpiece, one of the most famous Renaissance sculptures created by Michelangelo for the chapel of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. It is a one of a kind statue of Michelangelo's great works, themes of his craftsmanship. Cardinal Jean De Billheres commissioned the construction of this large statue. It was actually designed for the cardinal's funerary monument but was then moved to its current location in the 18th century near the first church entering the basilica (http://gardenofpraise.com/art50.htm).The theme or subject of the statue had a northern origin that was very popular in those days in France. Michelangelo's perception and interpretation of the statue are rather static and unique compared to those of his predecessors. It was of great significance as its presence balances Renaissance ideologies and concepts of beauty with those of theclassical beauty and naturalism. The statue of the Pietà is one of the most accomplished works of the great architect SirMichelangelo. The structure of the Pietà statue is pyramidal in nature. The vertices of the statue coincide with the head of Mary, mother of Jesus. As the statue descends along the drapery of the Virgin Mary's dress, it progressively widens towards the base and towards the rock of Golgotha. The figures are apparently disproportionate due to the difficulty in trying to represent the image of an adult man cradled whole on a woman's lap. Most of the virgin's body appears to be hidden by the nature of her monumental drapery and yet the relationship between the figures appears to be more natural. The marks depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ appear to be minute and limited to very small nail marks, a representation of the wounds on Jesus' side (http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Pieta/Pieta.htm). The representation of the Madonna seems to appear very young and its peculiarity is said to be that of having three different interpretations. The first symbolism about his youth means uncorrupted purity. Michelangelo explained this to one of his biographers, Sir Ascanio Condivi. The second explanation about the statue and the way in which Michelangelo treated it was strongly influenced by the passion that had formed towards Dante's Divine Comedy. The fact that he knew the work so well made him go to Bologna and extend the highest hospitality by reciting various verses from the Bible. His perception in reciting this prayer was that “Christ” was a component of the three figures of the trinity, and therefore Mary mother of Jesus would be his daughter because it is she who gave birth to him. In his third explanation Michelangelo explains that such freshness observed in the years of his youth is a true flower of purity that can only be maintained by natural means achieved through the powers of God's acts. The exposition behind this analogy is seen when the viewer looks the image and actually observe Mary holding baby Jesus in her arms. Marry's youthful appearance and perhaps the serene facial expression followed by the position of her arms on the body of baby Jesus would suggest that she was actually looking at him and perhaps that is what she was seeing. In contrast, another person looking at the same would not read the same when looking at the diagram but would actually represent a picture of the future. If one were to interpret the meaning of the sculpture one would not say it literally without first going back to its origin. According to piety, the duty that children have towards their parents is the same duty that human beings have towards their gods (http://www.statue.com/michelangelo-pieta.html). Although there were several depictions and precedents of painted sculptures depicting virgins Sposato weeping for her son over her corpse, the art and theme of these paintings appear to have been as novel in Italian sculptures. This was strongly influenced by the presence of such dishes in northern art and received a lot of influence especially from Poland, Germany and France, the cardinal's place of origin. Furthermore, it was also discovered that the church of San Domenico in Bologna had many pietas. The conclusion was that the person who commissioned the construction of such pietas must have had such images in his mind. The history of the pieta's construction extends into eternity as the construction process apparently lasted a period of two consecutive years. Michelangelo's interpretation of the statues remains static and unique, distant and different from what others might have thought. It focused on the graceful, youthful, serene and celestial delicacy portrayed by the Virgin Mary and not on the elderly and somewhat deprived woman..