WP3: Post

Pieta by Bruno Lucchesi is a sculpture made in the 1970s. It consists of the scene of a dying man in a bed and a young girl draped over the bed. This sculpture is very similar to the original Pieta by Michelangelo. This version is of Mother Mary holding the deceased Jesus after his crucifixion. Between the two sculptures there is a reversal of roles: in the original Pieta the younger subject is dead while in the Pieta by Bruno Lucchesi the older subject is dead.

The name of both pieces, Pieta, means sorrow. This is shown in both sculptures through the sorrow of death. I feel that this title fits well for both pieces. The types of sculptures that Bruno Lucchesi makes are those similar to the Renaissance times. The realistic ways of both sculptures and the attention to detail shows this. Bruno Lucchesi is very familiar with this type of sculpture because his work is inspired by Italian/ European inspiration. Much of Bruno Lucchesi’s works are similar to the sculpture Pieta. Along with his influences from Italy, Bruno Lucchesi was inspired by a sculptor he met while he was a shepherd.

Going on a tangent from the biography of Bruno Lucchesi and his work, I wanted to focus on the material in which this sculpture was made from: Bronze. Bronze is used in many sculptures, including the one I am analyzing: Pieta. Bronze is ideal for sculptures because they have a very desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling in the finest details of a mold, something that is very important for such a realistic piece such as Pieta. The bronze is also very important for Pieta because of its strength. This sculpture was made to be outside, so the sculptor, Bruno Lucchesi, needed to keep in the mind how it would weather. This is why bronze was chosen.

Overall, there are a lot of background aspects that I should include in my analysis of this sculpture (and will  )!