My encounter with Michelangelo's Rondanini Pieta

This article proposes an explaination of the process of aesthetic experience that comprises a stage of discovery of a work of art that initially may have aroused an emotional response in the viewer who, in a second stage, proceeds to an objective analysis, evaluation and justification of the work's art historical meaning. The work cogitated in this regard is the Rondanini Pieta, Michelangelo's last non finito masterpiece. Because of the sculpture's unresolved ambiguity it has been variously interpreted without agreement about a convincing, definitive explanation of its meaning. After an overview of the sources and a selection of interpretations the author proposes a further tentative interpretation of the work.