Sorting out St. Peter churches in Rome

The thing about living in Rome — as I have now for almost two weeks — is that you don’t have to make any effort at all to see great art. It’s everywhere in this crumbling, old, rich, multi-layered city.

Everyday I make a point of getting to know something new. Yesterday it was the church of San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains) around the corner from me, near the Coliseum. Archaeologists have found remnants of a complex beneath it dating from the 3rd century AD, and the 20 massive marble columns inside are thought to have been brought to Rome from Greece. Reliquaries in the altar contain chains that purportedly bound St. Peter in Jerusalem.

But, above all, what makes this church remarkable is its statue of Moses by Michelangelo, the focal point of a grand tomb designed for Pope Julius II, but modified to such an extent before its completion around 1545 that the sculptor took to calling its creation a “tragedy.”

The well-known statues of two slaves — one dying, one rebelling — in the Louvre Museum in Paris were apparently intended for this tomb. Other sculptures that were included in the two-tiered monument were executed by pupils. But the Moses, seated with the tablets under his arm, heroic and human, angry and tender, all at the same time, is true blue, awesomely executed Michelangelo.

If I had to choose between it and the Pieta, I’d take Moses, if only because the crowds are thinner at San Pietro in Vincoli than at St. Peter’s.

— Susan Spano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

[Photo: www.romecity.it]

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 at 2:22 pm by Susan Spano and is filed under Europe, Italy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.