WP3: Rough Draft

The sculpture I was asigned for this final writing project is entitled Pieta and was created by a man named Bruno Lucchesi in 1970. It is composed of bronze and rests upon an cement block base. At it's highest point, the sculpture stands anout five feet off the ground and is about six feet long. It is located to the side of the art gallary and is surrounded on three sides by shrubs about six feet tall. The subject matter of the sculpture itself includes what appears to be an old, sickly looking man, possibly dead, lying in a bed with a woman draped over his legs, face down, possibly crying, with her hand up sort of reaching towards him. Luccesi is trying to make the agrument through this piece that nomatter who we are or where we come from, we will one day lose those who mean the most to us so we must charish them while they are alive. He most strongly makes this point through the context surrounding the artwork itself including the sculpture's location, title and emotions.

I was able to get the theme of "loss of a loved one" on my own before I had done any furthur research on the piece. When I began to explore the meaning of the title Pieta, I discovered that not only did this sculpture convey a seen of "Loss of a loved one" but that it also mirrored the theme of a classic sculpture also entitled Pieta, located in Vatican City and composed by the great Michelangelo. His piece also included a woman mourning the loss of a man, but the man in this case was Jesus Christ after his crusifixion and the woman was his mother Marry. The simularities and matching titles ar too great to be just couincidences, but there are also several striking differences present, so I believe Luccesi wanted the audience to make the connection between these two sculptures, but then derive meaning from the differences between them. This is where I came up with the idea of "No matter who we are or where we come from" coupled with the obvious theme of loss presented by the subject matter itself. If we look at the dead men in each of the pieces, one is Jesus Christ, a young man who obviously meant the world to his mother Marry, and was brutally murdered. If we look at the man in Luccesi's Pieta, we see a much older individual who seems o have endured a much more peacefull death, likely due to age. The difference is who these men were in life, but the simularity is that they were both valued in life but are now no longer alive. There are also differences between the two women. The women in Michelangelo's Pieta if obviously the mans mother, and has jesus cradeled in her lap. The other sculpture instead has the wommen draped over the top of the dead man and also appears younger, which suggests that maybe she was his daughter. This shows a difference in relationship during these individuals lives, but none the less, they are both here mourning the death of these loved ones.

Prior to this project I have ben on campus for almost a full semester and walk by the art museum almost every day on the way to class. I had seen many of the sculptures my classmates were assigned many times, but oddly I had never even known th sculpture I was assigned, Pieta, even existed. This is completly due to the location of this piece of artwork. Most of the sculptures on camus are located out in the middle of open courtyards, visible from all sides and from long distances away. Pieta is tucked away right to the side of the art museum, surrounded on three sides by thick shrubs all standing about six feet high. The only way to see the statue completly is to actually walk off the sidewalk, up beside the building. I found this interesting, as it was obviously no accident that this one statue was put here like this. Whoever placed this statue here wanted the audience to have to make an effort in order to see the full content of this piece.