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The Deposition (also called the Bandini Pietà or The Lamentation over the Dead Christ) is a marble sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance master Michelangelo.The sculpture, on which Michelangelo worked between 1547 and 1555, depicts four figures: the dead body of Jesus Christ, newly taken down from the Cross, Nicodemus [1] (or possibly Joseph of Arimathea), Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary.
He had worked on the sculpture all day, just six days before his death. [7] The Rondanini Pietà was begun before The Deposition of Christ was completed in 1555. In his dying days, Michelangelo hacked at the marble block until only the dismembered right arm of Christ survived from the sculpture as originally conceived.
The Rondanini Pietà was begun in 1552, and still very unfinished at his death in 1564; ... It was something of a scene." [18]
Michelangelo transformed the plan so that the Western end was finished to his design, as was the dome, with some modification, after his death. Michelangelo was the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive. [3] Three biographies were published during his lifetime.
Where traditional compositions generally contrast an ordered, harmonious heavenly world above with the tumultuous events taking place in the earthly zone below, in Michelangelo's conception the arrangement and posing of the figures across the entire painting give an impression of agitation and excitement, [4] and even in the upper parts there is "a profound disturbance, tension and commotion ...
The subject would be appropriate for a chapel dedicated to the pietà, and in its position it would be lit from the left, like the depicted scene in the painting. The description of the painting in the National Gallery's catalogue suggests that Michelangelo departed to secure the large block of marble that would become his David sculpture ...
The backdrop to the scene is a minimally elaborated mountainous background. Michelangelo did not render this background in great detail. Giorgio Vasari states, "There are no landscapes to be seen in these scenes, nor any trees, buildings or other embellishments and variation."
Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis of which The Creation of Adam is the best known, the hands of God and Adam being reproduced in countless imitations. The complex design includes several sets of individual figures, both clothed and nude, which allowed Michelangelo to fully demonstrate his skill in ...