Michelangelo

And in Rome, Michelangelo carved the Pieta.
             A French Cardinal named Jean de Villiers de la Groslaye commissioned the Pieta in 1498. " The historic contract for the Pieta, dated August 26, 1498, says: Let it be known that the most Reverend Cardinal of San Donigi [the name of his titular church] has thus agreed with the master Michelangelo, sculptor of Florence, to wit, that the said master shall make a pieta of marble at his own cost; that is to say, a Virgin Mary clothed, with the dead Christ in her arms, of the size of a proper man, for the price of 450 golden ducats of the papal mint, within the term of one year from the day of the commencement of the work. At the end of the contract came a guarantee from Galli (A mutual acqaintance of Michelangelo and the Cardinal who set up the deal.): And I, Jacopo Galli, pledge my word to his most Reverend Lordship that the said Michelangelo will finish the said work within one year, and that it shall be the finest work in marble which Rome today can show, and that no master of our days shall be able to produce a better '- (Coughlan 73) Did Michelangelo succeed in holding up his end of the deal? Yes, he did succeed. The Pieta was began in 1498 and completed in 1499. It stands 68 ½ inches tall, in Saint Peter's Basilica, The Vatican, Rome. "Living up to the claim that no other sculptor could produce a better work, he was able to take a block of white marble, wider than it was tall, and carve from it, in pyramidal form, a statue of marvelous compactness and monumentality - (Coughlan 74) Looking at this large figure of Mary, it is hard to imagine that it was once a cold hard block of stone. It is harder still to imagine the time, strength, sweat, and more than likely blood that was put into this piece. When I look at this statue of Mary, now so warm and life-like, not like cold hard stone, holding the limp, dead body of her son, I see so much.