Michelangelo is considered one of the greatest artists in history and was a great leader during the Italian Renaissance. Not only was he a great painter, but a sculptor as well. His most famous sculptures all depict variations of the same scene: the Virgin Mary and the body of the dead Christ after his crucification. These four sculptures, collectively called the Pietas, are all very unique. Pieta 1 was sculpted in 1499, when Michelangelo was only 23 years …showed first 75 words of 405 total…

…showed last 75 words of 405 total…and Christ together one last time in a scene of peacefulness. In Pieta 1, Michelangelo not only convinces himself, but others who view the masterpiece of the divine quality and significance of the Virgin Mary and Christ by means of natural beauty, perfect by human standards and therefore divine. One is face to face with not only pain as a condition of redemption while viewing the piece, but with absolute beauty as one of the consequences.