Pieta, Hand-Painted Medal, “The Pity,” Michelangelo

     The Pieta is a famous motif in Christian art that represents the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of her son, Jesus. The image of the Pieta evokes the deep sadness that the Blessed Mother experienced from Christ’s suffering. The Pieta and the extreme grief it displays reminds us of the magnitude of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the Cross.               The Pieta is a famous 15th Century Renaissance marble sculpture created by Michelangelo Buonarroti in Rome at age 25.  It sits in the first Chapel of Saint Peter’s Basilica near the Holy Door adjacent to Saint Sebastian’s Altar. It shows the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s lamentation of her son, Jesus whom she is shown holding close to her heart after his death. The Pieta was commissioned by French Cardinal Jean de Bilheres in 1498. It has been damaged many times, most notably in 1972 when a lunatic, Hungarian–born Australian, Laszlo Toth, attacked the Pieta with a geologist’s hammer while proclaiming, “I am Jesu