#2 The Pieta

Once again, I'm returning to our trip to Rome to give you a moment that impacted me. That moment was the viewing of the Pieta. The Pieta is, quite simply, the most inspiring sculpture that I have ever seen. The sorrow in Mary's face is so real that you want to reach out and comfort her in her moment of anguish. Jesus, on the other hand, looks so life-like and detailed that you feel like he died and was turned into the statue that you see, to forever memorialize his storied sacrifice. The awe I felt at seeing this sculpture, which Talli and I saw on both of the days that we went to the Vatican, is hard to describe. The grandeur and its impact on me was much greater than I had expected. I can hardly imagine what possessed the mentally disturbed Lazlo Toth that defaced it in 1972. Apparently he struck it repeatedly with a hammer while declaring that he was Jesus Christ. I am unconvinced. Somehow, I don't think that Jesus Christ would go around smashing statues with hammers. Now it is protected behind unbreakable glass to protect it from art hating loonies.