1Michelangelo, Pieta, c. 1498-1500

Michelangelo carved a number of works in Florence during his time with the Medici, but in the 1490s he left Florence and briefly went to Venice, Bologna, and then to Rome, where he lived from 1496-1501.
In 1497, a cardinal named Jean de Billheres commissioned Michelangelo to create a work of sculpture to go into a side chapel at Old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  The resulting work – the Pieta – would be so successful that it helped launch Michelangelo’s career unlike any previous work he had done.

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