Description

The pity of San Pietro or Pietà Vaticana was created between the years 1497 and 1499, sculpted from a single block of Carrara marble, it is considered the first masterpiece of the artist who was then in his early twenties, as well as one of the major works of art that the West has ever produced; it is also the only work by Michelangelo that bears his signature.

The work immediately aroused great admiration and it seems that Michelangelo signed it at a later time, when he heard two men praising the statue but attributing it to the Lombard sculptor Cristoforo Solari.

On the band of the shoulder strap that holds the Virgin’s mantle he signed:

“MICHAEL.A[N]GELVS BONAROTVS FLORENT[INVS] FACIEBAT ”

Which means: “The Florentine Michelangelo Buonarroti did it”