Pieta-Michelangelo

Pieta is a masterpiece created by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1499. It is a Renaissance sculpture that is now located in Saint Peter's Basicila in Vatican City. This is just one of the many artworks that has launched Michelangelo into a class among some of the greatest artists to ever live.

The famous artwork depicts the body of Jesus Christ laying on the lap of his mother, Virgin Mary, soon after his crucifixion.The theme of the masterpiece is of Northern origin, which was popular in France at the time but hadn't yet reached Italy.The structure is in somewhat of a pyramid shape, and the top of it coincides with the Virgin Mary's head. It is also made out of fine marble, which gives it a sharp and unique look. By studying the artwork, it is easy to conclude that the figures are somewhat out of proportion, because Mary looks quite larger than Jesus Christ. Another strange characteristic about this masterpiece is that Mary looks very young and beautiful, as opposed to a look that an average 50 year old mother would have. Many critics feel that Michelangelo purposely designed this artwork like this to depict that Mary has stayed young and beautiful into her older ages because of her purity that she practiced throughout her whole life by being a virgin. Critics also feel that Michelangelo made Jesus Christ so much smaller than Mary because he wanted to show his feebleness during his state of death, while laying in his mother's arms.

I really liked this masterpeice created by Michelangelo. I feel like it gives its viewers a great sense of how art was made in the late 1400's, and how art has evolved over hundreds of years. I think that the small imperfections, if you will, that this masterpiece contains makes it more beautiful and unique. Micheangelo used clever and wily tactics to make certain ideas that he wanted to show evident to his viewers. By studying this artwork, it is now clear to me why Micheangelo is one of the worlds most famous artists til this day.
-O.D.

 I chose this work from John Baldessari because I find it very interesting and artistic. What I like most about his photos is how he uses the distribution of colors. Even by just looking at The arms of the male and female you can tell one is the natural skin color and the other is of black and white. Baldessari also loved covering people's faces with sometimes plain colorful circles but in this case he left the nose and ear come out. I find it very mysterious as to why he does this. He almost doesn't want the viewer to realize what or who they are looking at. Also the clothing, the hair, and bow also are very vibrant and stick out again. Again Baldessari loved expressing colors and drawing the eye to colorful parts of the photo. I find his work very interesting and entertaining.
-Owen