Art Paintings

Michelangelo's Pieta is a beautiful realistic marble statue of Christ's limp body in the hands of Marry. Roettgen Pieta is more cartoon like, a not so real looking statue of Mary holding Christ.

The proportion of Michelangelo's Pieta is much more accurate than Roettgen Pieta. When you look at it looks like something you'd see in real life, but when you get closer you see that Mary is actually enlarged. Mary and Christ have the same sized heads. Christ is wearing barely anything compared to Mary who is covered in loads of drapery, gives the affect that Mary is larger because she is mourning over him. You don't realize it at first glance because of the naturalistic details of the artwork, but Mary is enormous and we over look the distortion in the proportion of it.

The proportion in Roettgen pieta is more of them being around the same size, except Christ's body is very thin and beaten. The reason he made him so thin is to make it seem like Mary could actually hold him up. They both have extremely large heads compared to their bodies to help heighten the expressiveness of the work. This piece really shows the suffering Christ went through.

Michelangelo's Pieta was very well balanced and precise. It is more calm and soothing where Roettgen Pieta is stronger and dramatic. These pieces show utilization of how they depict and completely alter mood, feelings and emotions of two sculptures of art that are so similar. These both show the suffering and pain that Christ went through and Mary mourning over the tragedy in their own different ways. They both have their own way of expressing balance and proportion and they both are pulled off so beautifully. Michelangelo gave you more of a softer feel and Roettgen Pieta gave you more of a gory feel.