Michelangelo worked on the unfinished Pieta' (called Rondinini after the
name of one of its owners; see Hartt, 3rd. edition. fig. 708) in 1552-53 and
again in 1556. It is completely extraneous to the sculpture collection of
the Castello Sforzesco which focusses on sculpture from Lombardy (the area
of northern Italy in which Milan is), and was purchased only in 1952,
shortly prior to the post-war work on the Castle.

After walking a long, fairly chronological lay out of (mostly) sculpture in
Lombardy through a series of medium to medium-large rooms (some with their
original late-15th-century frescoes), the visitor enters a large, long
rectangular hall at one of its ends, but the floor -- level with the
preceding room -- turns out to be like an upper landing with some
Renaissance Lombard sculptures, including a funeral monument. The visitor
then must go down a few stairs to examine a funeral effigy of a famous
French general who fell in the early-16th-century battles for France to take
over the Milanese territories (a right it felt it had because of
long-standing family ties). Despite the fact that this sculpture was carved
in the early 1500's, it has some of the the formal, courtly, and stiff
appearance of an International Gothic sculpture. At this point, the visitor
is blocked from viewing whatever is on the final and lowest level of the
long hall (the Michelangelo, obviously) by a tall, formidable looking,
self-standing "curtain wall" of wood. The visitor has to go down more steps,
and enter the "curtained" space in order to see the Pieta', alas, only from
the front and sides, as it is placed against a backdrop, so the visitor and
scholar cannot examine it in the round, but must sit and gaze on the work of
the "divinely inspired genius."

The facts that this sculpture perhaps was carved by Michelangelo for his own
funeral monument, and that this was an excellent opportunity to compare
lingering courtly International Gothic trends in Milan (and the "why") with
the very different approach of a mid-16th-century Florentine who also had
spent a lot of time at the papal court in Rome were apparently not of the
greatest importance when the display first was created. The work is, indeed,
one of the more "recent" works in this sculpture collection, but it was
separated out at the very end of the (roughly) chronological flow of
presentation also because the sculpture is extraneous to the rest of the
collection, and was by a "genius" artist (not to slight Michelangelo's
talents, but, rather, to point out the different methodological approaches).

The fairly recent conference presented suggestions by four architects/firms
to re-present the Michelangelo, each of which was much debated. One of the
projects enhanced, rather than ameliorated the distancing of the work from
the rest of the collection, and sought to underscore the "wow, a genius"
factor. This proposal seemed to garner less favor (thankfully), but I have
not seen any official notice of any decisions regarding the exposition of
the piece, and, in closing, I'd like to say, again, that, after about 45 or
so years, this is the one aspect of the work by BBPR in the Castello
Sforzesco which has seemed to "age." The rest of the exposition remains as
accessible and useful as ever and has, in the interim, become a "museum
piece," itself.

Hope this has been interesting, best regards,

Star

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