San Pietro in Vincoli

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For other churches of this dedication, see St Peter ad Vincula (disambiguation).

San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains) is a basilica in Rome, best known for housing Michelangelo's statue Moses.

History

The Basilica Eudoxiana was first built in 432-440 to house the relic of the chains that bound Saint Peter while imprisoned in Jerusalem. According to legend, when Empress Eudoxia (wife of Emperor Valentinian III) gifted the chains to Pope Leo I; legend holds that while he compared them to the chains of St. Peter's first imprisonment in the Mamertine Prison in Rome, the two chains miraculously fused together. The chains are kept in a reliquary under the main altar in the basilica.

The basilica underwent several restorations and rebuildings, among them a restoration by Pope Adrian I, rebuilding by Pope Sixtus IV and by Pope Julius II. There was also a renovation in 1875. The front portico, attributed to Baccio Pontelli, was added in 1475. The cloister (1493-1503) has been attributed to Giuliano da Sangallo.

The current Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Petri ad vincula is Pío Cardinal Laghi.

Interior

The interior has a nave and two aisles, with three apses divided by antique Doric-style columns. The aisles are surmounted by cross-vaults, while the nave has an 18th century lacunar ceiling, frescoed in the center by Giovanni Battista Parodi, portraying the Miracle of the Chains (1706).

Michelangelo's Moses (completed 1515), while originally intended as part of a massive 47-statue, free-standing funeral monument for Pope Julius II, became the centerpiece of the Pope's funeral monument and tomb in this, his family's church.

Moses is depicted with horns, as opposed to "the radiance of the Lord", due to the similarity in the Hebrew between the word for "beams of light" and "horns". This kind of iconographic symbolism was common in early sacred art, and in this case gives ease to the sculptor (as sculpting concrete horns is easier than sculpting abstract light) and would have been understood by all who saw it as referring to the radiance of Moses' face; they would not have actually thought that he had horns.

Other art works include two canvas of Saint Augustine and St. Margret by Guercino, the monument of cardinal Girolamo Agucchi designed by Domenichino (also author of a sacristy fresco depicting the Liberation of St. Peter (1604). The altarpiece on the first chapel to the left is a Deposition by Pomarancio. The tomb of Nicolò Cardinal da Cusa (d 1464), with the relief Cardinal Nicholas before St Peter is by Andrea Bregno. Painter and sculptor Antonio Pollaiuolo is buried here. Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, is buried in the Church.

References

• Federico Gizzi, Le chiese medievali di Roma, Newton Compton, Rome, 1998.

External links

• San Pietro in Vincoli at romecity.it
• See Location San Pietro in Vincoli on the Map

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Last updated on Monday February 25, 2008 at 13:55:28 PST (GMT -0800)
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