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San
Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in
Chains) is a basilica in Rome, best
known for housing Michelangelo's
statue Moses. The basilica was first
built in the mid-5th Century 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. 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 Latin between the
word for "beams of light" and "horns".
This kind of iconographoic 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 radience 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, the First
Earl of Tyrone, is buried at the
Church of San Pietro, Rome. |