Details:
The Deposition is a marble sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance master Michelangelo. It depicts four figures: the dead body of Jesus Christ, newly taken down from the Cross, Nicodemus (or possibly Joseph of Arimathea), Mary Magdalene, and the Virgin Mary. The sculpture is housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence and is therefore also known as the Florentine Pietà. The statue was originally intended for Michelangelo's tomb in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, but he sold it before completion.
Michelangelo intentionally damaged Christ's left arm and leg and removed several components for reasons still under debate. After 8 years of working on it, Michelangelo would go on to attempt to destroy the work in a fit of frustration. This marked the end of Michelangelo's work on the sculptural group, which found itself in the hands of Francesco Bandini, who hired an apprentice sculptor, by the name of Tiberio Calcagni, to restore the work to its current composition.
Since its inception, the sculpture has been plagued by ambiguities and never-ending interpretations, with no straightforward answers available.
Image By Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5
