Imagine starting with a block of stone and ending up with this. When Michelangelo was 23 years old, he was commissioned by a cardinal to produce “the most beautiful work of marble in Rome, one that no living artist could better.” It was to capture the moment the Virgin Mary held Christ in her arms after he was taken down from the cross.
Accepting the challenge, the relatively unknown young man got to work on a block of Carrara marble. Less than 2 years later, the work was installed at the cardinal’s grave, on the very same day he died. When revealed, it was met with sheer disbelief. Most doubted it was the young man’s work, so he carved into the sash across Mary’s chest: “Michelangelo Buonarroti of Florence made this.”
La Pietà embodies the power of beauty as a transcendent force. It takes the worst possible human tragedy — the loss of a grieving parent — and transforms it into something that helps you to instead see the ecstatic joy of human life.
Michelangelo saw in the dead body of Christ such compassionate suffering that it drove him to create the most beautiful thing ever hewn from a block of marble. Vasari called it 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.”
La Pietà now lives at St. Peter’s Basilica, where it has been for over 500 years.
Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
canisgallicus 