Table Of ContentMichelangelo’s Vatican Pietà and
its Afterlives
This book offers a fresh perspective on Michelangelo’s w ell-k nown masterpiece, the
Vatican Pietà, by tracing the shifting meaning of the work of art over time.
Lisa M. Rafanelli chronicles the object history of the Vatican Pietà and the active
role played by its many reproductions. The sculpture has been on continuous view
for over 500 years, during which time its cultural, theological, and artistic signif-
icance has shifted. Equally important is the fact that over its long life it has been
relocated numerous times and has also been reproduced in images and objects pro-
duced both during Michelangelo’s lifetime and long after, described here as artistic
progeny: large-s cale, unique sculpted variants, s maller-s cale statuettes, plaster and
bronze casts, and engraved prints.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, Renaissance studies,
early modern studies, religion, Christianity, and theology.
Lisa M. Rafanelli is Professor of Art History at Manhattanville College.
Routledge Research in Art History
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Nature and Imagination in Ancient and Early Modern Roman Art
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Erasures and Eradication in Modern Viennese Art, Architecture and Design
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Egon Schiele and the Art of Popular Illustration
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State Construction and Art in East Central Europe, 1 918–2 018
Edited by Agnieszka Chmielewska, Irena Kossowska, and Marcin Lachowski
Michelangelo’s Vatican Pietà and its Afterlives
Lisa M. Rafanelli
The Virtual Liturgy and Ritual Artifacts in Medieval and Early Modern Studies
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Michelangelo’s Vatican Pietà and
its Afterlives
Lisa M. Rafanelli
Designed cover image: Zloyel/ Getty
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
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© 2023 Taylor & Francis
The right of Lisa M. Rafanelli to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Rafanelli, Lisa M., author.
Title: Michelangelo’s Vatican Pietà and its afterlives / Lisa M. Rafanelli.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022038451 (print) | LCCN 2022038452 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367859886 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032418230 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003016250 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475-1564. Pietà. | Art and society.
Classification: LCC NB623.B9 A69 2023 (print) | LCC NB623.B9 (ebook) |
DDC 759.5—dc23/eng/20220926
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022038451
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022038452
ISBN: 9780367859886 ( hbk)
ISBN: 9781032418230 ( pbk)
ISBN: 9781003016250 ( ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9781003016250
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
This book is dedicated to my parents, Kenneth and Marie Rafanelli,
who have been endlessly supportive of me over the years. It is also
dedicated to the memory of my grandparents and g reat-g randparents,
who left their lives and homes in I taly—B orgo Val di Taro, Massa
Carrara, and Prato—f or the promise of America. Like so many of the
European immigrants described in these pages, they set sail across
the Atlantic at the dawn of the twentieth century, and arrived at Ellis
Island in New York Harbor determined to build a brighter future. I
hope this book would have made them proud.
Finally, to my daughters, Isabella and Liliana, you are my
everything. I love you to the moon and back.
Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1 Opening Act: Michelangelo’s Vatican Pietà 15
Cardinal Jean de Bilhères Lagraulas and the Commission 16
Envisioning the Pietà 20
The Finished Sculpture (a nd Some Lingering Questions) 24
Encountering the Pietà 28
Experiencing the Pietà 29
The Madonna della Febbre 30
The Peripatetic Pietà: From Santa Petronilla to the Secretarium 30
2 Canonicity and Its Discontents: Artistic Progeny of the Pietà during
the Sixteenth Century 39
A Pietà for Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome 39
Intermezzo: Florentine Rebellion 43
A Pietà for Santo Spirito in Florence 43
An Anonymous Critic and a Madrigal 46
A Pietà for the King of France 47
A Pietà for Everyone: Reproductive Prints 49
Canonicity and its Discontents 50
3 Restaging the Pietà in the Late Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries 60
Marian Devotion and Imagery in Tridentine Rome 61
The Pietà and the Canons’ Choir (1 568–1 609) 64
On the Road Again ( 1609– 1625) 67
Early Seventeenth Century Posthumous Bronze Copies of the Pietà in
Italy and Spain 67
The New Canons’ Choir (1 625–1 750) 71
Coronation 73
viii Contents
4 Shifting Perspectives: Michelangelo and the Pietà from the
Mid- Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries 79
The Pietà and the Grand Tour 80
Robert Samber’s Roma Illustrata ( 1722) 83
Mid- Century: The Pietà takes Center Stage 86
The Late Eighteenth- Early Nineteenth Centuries: Revolution,
Romanticism, and Michelangelo 89
Entre’acte: Napoleon and the Looting of Rome 90
The Mid- Nineteenth Century: Nationalism and the Art of Michelangelo 93
The Great Exhibition of 1851 93
Michelangelo’s Florentine Birthday Bash of 1875 94
5 The Pietà on the American Stage: The Twentieth Century 106
A Question of Authenticity 106
Marble Pietàs in Early Twentieth Century America: Icons of Faith,
Beauty, and Identity 109
The Pietà and Popular Devotion: Our Lady of Sorrows 110
Ars Longa, Vita Brevis: The Pietà at Forest Lawn Memorial Park
in Glendale 113
Lost- Wax Bronze Casts of the Pietà: Icons of Faith, Beauty, and
Commerce 114
The Pietà and American Consumer Capitalism 116
Only the Original Would Do: The 1964– 1965 New York World’s Fair 117
Staging the Pietà at the Vatican Pavilion 121
Critical Reception 121
Souvenirs, Body Doubles, and Effigies 124
Plot Twist: An Iconoclastic Attack ( 1972) 126
6 Coda: The Pietà on the Global Stage 140
Something Borrowed: Recasting Casts 141
Fragmentation, Proselytization, and Commodification 142
Something New: Contemporary Artists and the Vatican Pietà 146
Artistic Appropriation: The Sacred and the Profane 146
The Vatican Pietà as a Symbol of Social Justice 148
Performance, Empathy, and Memory: Seeing the Pietà Afresh 151
Bibliography 163
Index 179
Figures
0.1 Attributed to Daniele da Volterra, Portrait of Michelangelo, c. 1545,
oil on wood 1
1.1 Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498– 1499, marble, Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican 15
1.2 Etching after Tiberio Alfarano, Almae Urbis divi Petri veteris
novique Templi descriptio (P lan of Saint Peter’s with its relationship
to the new Basilica), 1590 17
1.3 Donatello, Marble tabernacle (c iborium), 1432, with fourteenth
century Madonna della Febbre attributed to Lippo Memmi, Museum
of the Treasury, Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican 18
1.4 Vesperbild, German, 1 375–1 400, wood with polychromy 19
1.5 Pietà with Donors, French, 1515, limestone with traces of polychromy 20
1.6 Pietà, Late Gothic, Basilique S aint-N azaire, Carcassone 21
1.7 Attributed to Michelangelo, Pietà, before 1497, terracotta bozzetto,
Private Collection 22
1.8 Piero D’Argenta, Pietà, c. 1497– 1499, oil on wood, Galleria
Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome, Italy 23
1.9 Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498– 1499, marble, detail of Virgin Mary’s face
and torso, Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican 25
1.10 Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498– 1499, marble, detail of Christ’s hand,
marble, Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican 26
2.1 Pietro Lorenzetto, Pietà, 1519– 1530, marble, Santa Maria
dell’Anima, Rome 40
2.2 Nanni di Baccio Bigio, Pietà, 1540– 1549, marble, Santo Spirito, Florence 44
2.3 Attributed to Leone Leoni, Pietà, in the 1560s, a plaster cast of
Michelangelo’s original 48
2.4 Giulio Bonasone, Pietà under the Cross of Golgotha, 1547, engraving 50
2.5 Antonio Salamanca (f rom Nicolas Béatrizet), Pietà, 1547, engraving,
Istituto Nazionale per la Grafca, Rome 51
2.6 Adamo ( Ghisi) Scultori, Pietà, 1566, engraving 52
3.1 High Altar, Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome 62
3.2 Altar with Salus Popoli Romani, completed 1612, Pauline Chapel,
Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome 63
3.3 Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Tomb of Pope Sixtus IV, 1493, bronze,
Museum of the Treasury, Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican 65
3.4 Jacques Callot, Pietà ( after Michelangelo), 1608/ 1611, engraving 68
