Palestrina Pietà

{{Short description|Sculpture by Michelangelo}}

{{infobox artwork|image_file=Michelangelo_Pietà_Palestri.jpg|image_size=256px|title=Palestrina Pietà|artist=Attributed to Michelangelo|year=c. 1555|type=Marble|height_metric=253|metric_unit=cm|imperial_unit=in|city=Florence|museum=Galleria dell'Accademia}}

The Palestrina Pietà is a marble sculpture of the Italian Renaissance, dating from c. 1555 and now in the Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence. It was formerly attributed to Michelangelo, but now it is mostly considered to have been completed by someone else, such as Niccolò Menghini{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n0BQAAAAYAAJ|title=Journal of the Royal Society of Arts|publisher=Society|volume=117|year=1970}} or Gian Lorenzo Bernini.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Y_zV7kNgP0C&pg=PA179|author1=Rudolf Wittkower|author2=Joseph Connors|author3=Jennifer Montagu|title=Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1999|orig-year=1958|volume=2|page=179|isbn=0-300-07889-7}} According to the Galleria dell'Accademia, the sculpture's "attribution to the master is still somehow controversial".{{Cite web|url=http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/David_by_michelangelo.html|title = Accademia Gallery - David by Michelangelo - Florence}}

This Pietà depicts three figures, one of them the body of Jesus Christ. The sculpture was originally in a room beside the Santa Rosalia church in Palestrina and was owned by the Barberini family. Some sources indicate it was made in 1556.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fejo19pKbj0C&q=Palestrina+Piet%C3%A0+1556|author=Nicholas Wadley|title=Michelangelo|publisher=Castle Books|year=1974|pages=96|isbn=9780890090091}} The sculpture was acquired by the government in 1939. The attribution to Michelangelo was made in the first half of the 18th century. There is no earlier discussion of the work as there is for nearly all others attributed to the master.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-wXaO9ICGgC&pg=PA25|author1=Angelo Tartuferi|author2=Fabrizio Mancinelli|title=Michelangelo. Pittore, scultore, architetto|year=2001|language=it|page=25|publisher=ATS Italia Editrice |isbn=9788887654639}}