Pietà — Michelangelo

Michelangelo's Pietà, completed in 1499 when the sculptor was only 24 years old, remains the world's most emotionally powerful marble sculpture, capturing a mater dolorosa of sublime grace. Carved from a single block of Carrara marble weighing over 7 tons, Mary's youthful face contrasts with the anguished but serene body of Christ, a feat of anatomical rendering that no other work of its size—including Michelangelo's David—quite achieves.