The First Work of Modern Art?

Michelangelo - Pietà Rondanini - Marble - 1552/53-1564 - Height: 74 in. - The Castello Sforzesco (Sforza Castle), Milan, Italy (click photos for larger image)The final work of Michelangelo (1475-1564) is the Pietà Rondanini. Comparatively little attention has been paid to this sculpture, which the artist worked on intermittently from age 77 to age 89. Michelangelo’s contemporary, artist Daniel da Volterra, mentioned the sculpture in a letter of 1654 to Michelangelo’s nephew. Artist Giorgio Vasari, considered the first art historian and another contemporary of Michelangelo, also briefly mentioned its existence. It passed through several owners hands until, in 1807, it quietly resurfaced in the inventory of the Rondanini family. However it was not acknowledged as a work by Michelangelo at that time. It “lived” outside on the Rondanini property, unregarded, and was covered with all kinds of muck for years. After the owner died, a long legal battle ensued. It was finally sold to Milan for $160,000 in 1954. But it wasn’t until 2003 that a major refurbishment of the sculpture and research project was begun, by Civiche Raccolte d’Arte Antica (Civic Collections of Antique Art). In conjunction with that project, Maria Teresa Fiorio wrote a book that includes more facts and research than any other conducted on the piece to date. Previously, it had been seen as a throw-away work created by an old man who had lost his skills, or who had reverted to a medieval style of art. It was so very inconsistent with such famous works as the Vatican Pieta, the David, and the Sistine Ceiling program.

The Pietà Rondanini is a very different sort of work—one of human frailty rather than of divine beauty. The unity between Mother and Son is so intimate, that it is almost impossible to tell whether it is the Mother supporting the Son, or the Son supporting the Mother. Both seem to hold themselves up in an act of invocation and lament before the world and God. By the time Michelangelo began this Pieta, he’d lost many of the people he’d loved in his life. He’d been caught up in numerous instances of political strife and intrigue—and had needed to flee Florence and other territories more than once. He’d seen the corruption eroding the church, up close and personal, having worked for seven popes during his lifetime. The Renaissance popes were great patrons of the arts—but they were a real piece of work in all other respects—greedy for money and power—and willing to do anything to get them. A deeply pious man throughout his life, Michelangelo had great difficulty in reconciling his faith with the church.

This work is not a return to medieval art OR thought. It’s far too subtle. And, Michelangelo’s superior talent could not submit to the canons set by earlier traditions. Siena-born artist Massimo Lippi has stated that, “in fact, modern and contemporary art began with the Pietà Rondanini—and I would tend to agree. Michelangelo recognized that he was living at the end of an era—both culturally and artistically. He’d always reinvented everything and stunned anyone who had gotten used to earlier innovations. In the Pietà Rondanini the rules of making art are surmounted by an instinctual power that was a final, direct, and definitive confrontation between a soul and God—and between the past and the future. It truly is a “living stone”. It presents the slow dawning of a different world, which art would catch up with 400 years later. With disproportion and paradox—and with the elimination of anything excessive—Michelangelo took a very modern approach to reach essence. The standard for assessing the quality of art in the early 1900s became the character of the artist's feelings rather than an analysis of composition or style. This extraordinary work of art wholly conforms to that standard—and did so several centuries before it was established.