Review

Michael Fitzgerald's novel Pieta is a riskily ambitious work set in the art world

By Ian McFarlane
Updated July 5 2021 - 2:20pm, first published July 3 2021 - 12:00am
Michelangelo's Pieta, in St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Picture: Shutterstock
Michelangelo's Pieta, in St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Picture: Shutterstock
  • Pieta, by Michael Fitzgerald. Transit Lounge, $29.99.

The Italian sculptor, Michelangelo, was 24 when he created what is possibly his greatest work of art. It was the Pietà - the Pity - carved from marble and depicting the body of Jesus being held by Mary after the Crucifixion, displayed in St Peter's Basilica in Rome. In 1972, Laszlo Toth, a disturbed Hungarian-born Australian, attacked the sculpture with a hammer, breaking off Mary's left arm and damaging her face. Toth spent two years in a mental hospital before being deported back to Australia. He died in 2012. It took almost a year to restore the Pietà, and the work is now secured behind bullet-proof glass.

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