Pieta Serrone

White Carrara marble. 120x100x40 cm

Pietà Serrone is my dedication to Carrara, the Apuan mountains, and their sublime, spiritual beauty, is at one and the same time strong and fragile. The sculpture is inspired by the particular shape of a particular mountain, which is located close to Carrara, and called Serrone. According to legend, the shape of this mountain is what inspired Michelangelo to create his first Pietà, which now resides in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. I found this antique block of Carrara marble while visiting one of the caves in the region – the same area where Michelangelo found his block for his Pietà.

Pietà Serrone is a homage to Michelangelo’s La Madonna della Pietà. But I interpret the subject of the Pieta more contemporarily than his classicism. This sculpture represents two women holding each other. One woman – the mountain – is all but abstract. She is more rock than face, just-roughed together, a becoming. And this woman embraces another woman, a young girl. The girl is almost life size and carved realistically. She is breathing, alive, or longing for life.  Where the woman and the girl meet, hands and body come together, and the abstract woman becomes real, that is, she becomes human. The two women could be a mother and her daughter, two sisters, or even lovers . . . Pietá Serrone is not a tragic story of grief and loss in which a woman mourns her daughter, sister, or friend. Rather, one woman (the mountain) awakens and gives of herself to another. This is a story of empathy, support, and love.

Video