Art director of the OMI studio: Creating a copy of Michelangelo’s Pieta is the dream of any sculptor

Creating a sculpture includes a whole range of procedures that will allow you to recreate the original in absolute accuracy. Initially, a copy of the sculpture is molded in a soft material and transferred into shape. After which the sculpture is cast in plaster and finally punctured into marble.

“The choice of marble is also a very important procedure on which the quality of the copy depends. Finding a block of the right size and the right shade is not an easy task, but we managed it. I am sure that already next summer our copy of Michelangelo’s Pieta will decorate a memorial in one of the Lviv cemeteries. We also took upon ourselves to cover the sculpture like a crypt and organize landscaping of the area. - noted Bogdan Kazachenko.

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The pieta was commissioned by Cardinal Jean Billaire de Lagrola, ambassador of the French King Charles VIII to the court of Pope Alexander VI Borgia. The sculptural group was supposed to decorate the Chapel of St. Petronilla (Chapel of the King of France) in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

The contract was signed on August 26, 1498. A year was allotted for the entire work, costing 450 gold ducats (a fortune at that time). Michelangelo depicted the Mother of God as a young woman, in whose external restraint one can easily discern the bottomless depth of the despair that gripped her and the horror of immeasurable sorrow. The depth of the tragedy is conveyed by her lowered head, gestures, and her very pose - the pose of a woman still trying to protect her son, still holding him close to her, but already understanding that he will not need protection in this world.