Bach's Passacaglia & Fugue, C minor BWV 582 (Piano)...Michelangelo's Pietà Rondanini (1564)

“For ten years of sleepless nights, I’ve been designing a Pietà. The body of our Lord was too heavy with death to be held up by his old Mother. His head… too earthy with matter, too real… so I cut away the Lord’s head and shoulders, leaving only his arm as a model for a new one, and carved a new head from the Virgin’s shoulder. He backs inward to fuse with his Mother’s body, as she bends forward to raise him up. Mother and Son, the Living and the Dead, become One – Death becomes a Resurrection.”

- Michelangelo

I love to look at and think about this last work of Michelangelo, his words on how he conceived the project, the process of it, and the meaning behind the sculpture. I especially like to look at it from side and back angles (07:36), as I am no longer sure if Mother Mary tries to raise up her Son's body, or if Jesus' frail body supports His mother's fainting body and soul, His death is too heavy for her to bear. The two indeed merge into one, a very deep picture, which saddens me immensely as I continuously look at it ...

Yet, what was the psychological status of Michelangelo's last ten years of life, when working toward this final project of his? Was he in total solitude? I ask myself why did Michelangelo hack the marble block here and there? Was he angry with himself, or with the fact that death becomes an inevitable destiny, after-all? Perhaps Michelangelo was feeling lonely, especially when his close acquaintances, one by one, have passed their lives, that depressive solitude must have become unbearable. Just think of how he felt when Urbino (Francesco d’Amadore, his servant and assistant for 25 years) passed away, here is what Michelangelo has written on 4 January 1556:

“I should tell you yesterday evening on the third day of December [Michelangelo mistook the month] at the fourth hour to my great distress, Francesco called Urbino passed from this life. And he has left me greatly stricken and troubled, so much that it would have given me greater delight to die with him on account of the love I bore him. And he deserved no less because he was a fine man, so devoted and loyal that I seem to be left lifeless myself following his death, and nothing can give me peace.”

Michelangelo (1475-1564) lives a long life of 89 years. Pietà Rondanini is housed in Sforza Castle in Milan.

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Music : piano transcription and played by Igor Zhukov.

Passacaglia starts at 0:00 ; Fugue 07:36

For further reading about BWV 582 and a performance in organ (http://allofbach.com/en/bwv/bwv-582/). Thanks S for introducing such great link named All of Bach, on almost all works of J S Bach, truly grateful for that.

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Видео Bach's Passacaglia & Fugue, C minor BWV 582 (Piano)...Michelangelo's Pietà Rondanini (1564) канала Solely Reminiscence