Michelangelo's Pieta – a huge marble statue depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the lifeless body of Christ – is one of the most celebrated art pieces in the history of humanity. It is housed in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and viewed by millions of pilgrims every year.
An American art historian has claimed to have discovered the original model created by Michelangelo for the 'Pieta'.
It is a terracotta model, about 12 inches tall and dated from the late 1400s, and was discovered in a mouldy box in an antiques shop by an Italian art collector. The tiny statue was covered in nine layers of paint and held together by Scotch tape. It was painstakingly restored over a process of three years. For years it has been believed that the statue was sculpted by Andrea Bregno, one of the most celebrated sculptors of the 15th century.
However, art historian, Roy Doliner, subjected the model to extensive analysis and believes that is it actually the long-lost model for Michelangelo's Pieta.
But Mr Doliner is convinced that the exquisite detail in the statue, its age and references made to it in later paintings prove that it was instead created by Michelangelo to convince a wealthy cardinal to give him the commission for the Pieta, which he eventually completed in 1499.
Mr Doliner is the author of The Sistine Secrets: Unlocking the Codes in Michelangelo's Defiant Masterpiece, in which he argued that Michelangelo hid a secret code in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel made up of mystical Jewish symbols and insults aimed at the pope.