Michelangelo's Pieta
The Pietà by Michelangelo is in the Vatican in Rome.
This famous artwork depicts the dead body of Jesus after his crucifixion in the arms of his mother Saint Mary.
They are quite out of proportion, owing to the difficulty of depicting a fully-grown man cradled full-length in a woman's lap. If Christ were to human scale, the Virgin, standing, would be sixteen feet tall. However, owing to Michelangelo's skill, the figures look quite natural.
Michelangelo's Pietà was damaged in 1972 by Lazlo Toth, who hammered the sculpture, while shouting "I am Jesus Christ."
