August 26

On the 26th in 1498, Michelangelo was commissioned to carve the Pietà. A contemporary of Michelangelo said of this sculpture that it was ‘a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture’ and ‘…it is certainly a miracle that a formless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection that nature is scarcely able to create in the flesh’. I guess they liked it. I think the sculpture is o.k., if you like that sort of thing. There is one thing about the piece that I find really quite depressing. Michelangelo was only 24 years old when he received the commission to carve it, was well under 30 when he finished it, and had not even begun to hit his stride. However, I can’t dwell on that fact too long because if I do I’ll end up simply packing it in and checking out.