Castello Sforzesco

The sprawling castle of Milan is home to several excellent museums, including one containing Michelangelo's final sculpture (a Pietà)

A sprawling 15th century castle complex whose echoing halls are now installed with civic museums. Among the collections of tapestries, archaeological artifacts, paintings by Bellini and Mantegna, and sculptures from medieval to neoclassical is Michelangelo's final work, the Rondanini Pietà.

Michelangelo began his career with a Pietà carved at age 25, now in Rome's St. Peter's, and while the master was famous for not finishing his statues, on this one it was not his fault. At the age of 89, he was struck down (probably by a stroke) literally while chipping away at this sculpture.

According to his friends and colleagues, he had been working feverishly on it, and nothing else, in the weeks leading up to his death, abandoning an earlier design (from which remains a disembodied right arm) to embark on this elongated and strikingly modern-looking form.

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This article was written by Reid Bramblett and was last updated in December 2010. All information was accurate at the time.

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