The Pieta, which many regard as the greatest sculpture ever made is located in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Rome. It is created by Michelangelo from 1498 to 1500. The marble sculpture was finished before he turned to 25. The art marble depicts the body of Jesus in the arms of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion.Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter and architect in his “Lives of the Artists” published in 1550, comment: "It would be impossible for any craftsman or sculptor no matter how brilliant ever to surpass the grace or design of this work, or try to cut and polish the marble with the skill that Michelangelo displayed. For the Pieta was a revelation of all the potentialities and force of the art of sculpture. Among the many beautiful features (including the inspired draperies) this is notably demonstrated by the body of Christ itself. It would be impossible to find a body showing greater mastery of art and possessing more beautiful members, or a nude with more detail in the muscles, veins, and nerves stretched over their framework of bones, or a more deathly corpse. The lovely expression of the head, the harmony in the joints and attachments of the arms, legs, and trunk, and the fine tracery of the veins are all so wonderful that it is hard to believe that the hand of an artist could have executed this inspired and admirable work so perfectly and in so short a time. 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."
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