Michelangelo’s Pieta
In 1497, the French ambassador, Cardinal Jean de Bilhères-Lagraulas, commissioned him to carve the famous Pietà, showing the Virgin Mary grieving over the body of her son, Jesus. It is one of the key signature pieces of art from the ‘High Renaissance’ period (1497 ~ 1527).
Michelangelo wrote over three hundred poems, sonnets and madrigals.
‘On the Brink of Death’ by: Michelangelo Buonarroti
Now hath my life across a stormy sea
Like a frail bark reached that wide port where all
Are bidden, ere the final reckoning fall
Of good and evil for eternity.
Now know I well how that fond phantasy
Which made my soul the worshiper and thrall
Of earthly art, is vain; how criminal
Is that which all men seek unwillingly.
Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed,
What are they when the double death is nigh?
The one I know for sure, the other dread.
Painting nor sculpture now can lull to rest
My soul that turns to His great love on high,
Whose arms to clasp us on the cross were spread.