Pietà for Vittoria Colonna [SEP] collection
Pietà for Vittoria Colonna
The Pietà for Vittoria Colonna is a black chalk drawing on cardboard (28.9×18.9 cm) by Michelangelo Buonarroti, dated to about 1538–44 and kept at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
History.
Michelangelo became acquainted with Vittoria Colonna around 1538. Their lively friendship gained Michelangelo admission to her social circles, and he became acquainted with issues of church reform. For Colonna, Michelangelo executed several paintings in the fifth decade of the sixteenth century. All of them are now lost or of controversial
attribution, but several sketches and copies by students and admirers of Michelangelo have been preserved.
Apart from a famous "Crucifixion", Michelangelo's most notable work for Vittoria Colonna is a "Pietà", of which a remarkable drawing is exhibited at Boston. It is not certain that this work was painted by Michelangelo, but it is described by Ascanio Condivi. It has at any rate proved influential: There are several copies by students of lesser skill in Florence and Rome, a reworking by Ludovico Buti and an adaptation