Replica of Michelangelo sculpture Pietà comes to San Buenaventura Mission

Ventura

As a man of deep faith, Father Tom Elewaut felt incredibly moved when he saw the sculpture depicting Mary holding the lifeless body of her crucified son, Jesus.

“It’s really emotional when you think someone died for us,” said Elewaut, pastor of San Buenaventura Mission. “Even if you’re not a person of faith, the artwork is incredible."

He spoke just steps from the newest addition to the mission, a full-size replica of Michelangelo’s famous Pietà. The sculpture arrived last week, one of just 112 Vatican-authorized copies that have come to be housed in locations around the world. It is composed into an equilateral triangle of about 6 feet, with Mary’s head at the apex.

On Sunday, the mission will hold an official unveiling of the replica Pietà, originally made in 1498 and 1499, according to the certificate of authenticity. After being vandalized in 1972 by a geologist wielding a rock hammer, the original is now housed behind bulletproof glass at Old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

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A cardinal named Jean de Billheres commissioned Michelangelo to make the sculpture as a funeral monument, according to “Michelangelo: The Man, His Works, His Legacy.”

To make a home for the masterpiece, church officials cleared a historic baptismal room near the back of the mission. They turned the space into what will be a prominent gallery to feature the Pietà, the only piece of his work the artist felt compelled to sign.

Local artist Belgar Merlich, who has a studio at Bell Arts Factory in west Ventura, created a custom stained-glass window of three crosses on Calvary Hill. Jesus, believed to be the son of God in the Christian faith, was crucified with two other men (thieves, per Scripture) at that hill. Another Bell Arts artist, MB Hanrahan, painted a blue backdrop to look like heavy drapes.

The replica of Pietà will be placed in a specially designed room, which formerly held baptisms, in Mission San Buenaventura.

Shelves were cut into the walls to feature sacred relics, and a heavy pedestal was placed along the back wall to support the sculpture.

Elewaut said much of the original has been captured in this rendition, composed of crushed Carrera marble from the same quarry Michelangelo used. Historians say Michelangelo carved the piece from a single slab. There are the many pleats in Mary’s veil and garments, the soft lines of her young face as she looks down at her son, the marks from the nails in Jesus’ feet.

It is No. 73 of 100 marble castings, while an additional 12 were cast in bronze. The Vatican Observatory Foundation authorized the castings in 2009. It was the first time the copies had ever been authorized by the Vatican museum or the foundation, the certificate of authenticity states. One goal was to raise money for the observatory, which studies astronomy out of its Italy headquarters and U.S. campus in Arizona.

Mission San Buenaventura has received a Vatican-authorized copy of Michelangelo's Pietà, which will be dedicated during an unveiling service at the mission on Sunday, July 8.

The observatory has worked from the University of Arizona since opening a site there in 1981 after light pollution became a deterrent to its work. Before that, it had been in Rome and now is headquartered just outside the city in Castel Gandolfo, said Father Christopher Corbally, a staff astronomer based in Arizona.

The university’s astronomy program is affiliated with the country of Vatican. For more than 400 years, after Pope Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian calendar (the one used today), the Vatican has continued to study astronomy, Corbally said. It studies asteroids, meteorites, stars, galaxies and other objects.

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There are other replicas of the Pietà, even within Southern California, but none of the other locations are arguably as public. One is at Bishop Alemany High School in the San Fernando Valley, while a bronze replica is at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland.

An authorized replica of Michelangelo's Pietà has come to San Buenaventura Mission.

People from all around the world visit the mission, Elewaut noted, and will be able to see the work.

The mission was able to buy the statue after receiving a donation from Jacqueline and Brad Hanson, of Arizona. The Hansons were introduced to Elewaut through a mutual friend who is an art purveyor.

Elewaut has visited Rome three times, with the first of those being months after a man believed to have a mental illness damaged the sculpture and proclaimed himself Jesus.

After an intensive, at-times controversial, restoration effort, the sculpture returned to the public but this time carefully guarded. Michelangelo is believed to have signed it after another artist briefly received credit for it.

On Sunday, the mission will hold a brief announcement at 4 p.m. and a reception in the gardens. Elewaut would be happy if many people visited the piece.

“We’re hoping for a tremendous celebration of gratitude, but also exposure,” he said.

The mission is at 211 E. Main St. in Ventura. The public is invited.

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