I have selected to briefly discuss Michelanglelo's "Pieta " in relationship to artistic and anatomical qualities which have inspired me personally. For me,- it has been a work that has always inspired me - I have studied the sculpture in person several times. Michelangelo and the High Renaissance period are among my specialty areas in Art History. He is perhaps my favorite artist of all time. I love the way that despite the fact that the sculpture weighs so much and would indeed require several strong people in order to lift it, -that it defies this material of marble and reality of weight. Michelangelo permits us through his careful skill and attention to detail to believe in the illusion of real flesh, anatomical descriptions of the muscles and bones. Through his work "Pieta " we forget the real world weight of the stone and see the work as composed of only real human weight - He makes us forget temporarily about the materials, the labor, the process, and instead feel the emotional power of this moment or story, the believability of the fingers of Mary pressing into his skin, the pulse of blood in their veins or in the very moment after the last breath has left the body of Christ. To think that one person could create a work in stone that captures so much of life and the eternal or universal in one piece of stone motivates me to accomplish the same as an artist.
James Xavier Barbour
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