Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini

Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini is a marble sculpture the artist and sculptor worked on from 1552 until the last days of his life in 1564. It is housed in the Museum of Ancient Art of Castello Sforzesco in Milan. This final sculpture revisits the theme of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of the dead Christ.The Pietà Rondanini is viewed as the final sculptural masterpiece by Michelangelo. In this work, the theme of compassion, which had been approached at various times by the artist, is particularly moving.

Miyamoto International was charged with engineering and design activities for the development of an isolated support for statue.  The isolation system will protect the statue from earthquakes and from the traffic-induced vibrations of the underground metro line that runs just below its location. Our client on this fabulous project was the City of Milan; the Politecnic University of Milan was the scientific supervisor.

Miyamoto designed the support, the connections between the device and the support and between the support and the statue, and the security aids for protecting the statue from overturning in the event of a major earthquake; we produced shop drawings for all the parts, except the device itself. We also performed linear and non-linear analyses to assess the effects of vibrations and earthquakes on the entire assembly, including the stability of the statue. The seismic retrofit of the Pietà Rondanini was featured on Discovery Channel’s “Daily Planet” show in 2015.