Renaissance giant Michelangelo's three 'pietas' united in historic first

Michelangelo's cast of the Vatican Pieta is seen during a preview of the exhibition "The Three Michelangelo's Pieta" at the Opera del Duomo museum in Florence. Photo: AFP

It is admired the world over as an exquisite depiction of maternal grief. But Michelangelo's Pieta has overshadowed two other moving sculptures on the same subject by the Renaissance giant.

That is why Florence's Opera del Duomo museum in Italy is putting on display together for the first time all three versions of the Virgin Mary mourning over the body of her son Jesus Christ.