It has taken me many years and many trips to Italy's famous museums to learn about Italian art and of course educating myself from many great Italian art books. I pick them at second hand book sales and now have quite a collection so if I need to know something about an Italian artist I go to my books. It has developed into a passion for genius. I have such respect for their genius - that some humans have been able to obtain such mastery in their field!! I want to fall down on my knees to pay homage to them.
The great Italian artists were all genius!! Michelangelo, Bernini, Caravaggio, Titian, Piero della Francesco, Da Vinci, - there are so many... When I gaze at Michelangelo's "Pieta" in St. Peter's Basilica in Roma, it brings tears to my eyes. He was such a deep, sensitive man to be able to express the grief of a mother in stone - it always stupifies me every single time. "Pieta" is such the perfect name for this statue as well. It evokes so much compassion.
A tragedy that it is now under glass and that it moved a man so much that he had to attack it with an axe many years ago to try to kill it to stop the emotion that was coming out in him!! I consider the Pieta the best sculpture in the world for all reasons as well as those principles according to sculpture. I have seen many all over the world but for a piece of stone to move one so emotionally says it all - the perfect sculpture in such an amazing place!!
