A Forgettable Church. And An Unforgettable Church.

I'm not sure our stop in the first church of the day was a "forgettable church" as this blog post title implies, but I don't remember the name of it, so I suppose I forgot it.

(Editor: Your blog post title doesn't just imply, it comes right out and says it's forgettable.  Writer: My point is that I forgot, not that it's the church's fault.)

Anyhow, since I don't remember the church, here's a couple of pictures from it with no write-up.

Here's conclusive proof the

forgettable church has a dome.

Cherubs and angels

are very photogenic.

So, now to the unforgettable church, San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter-in-Chains).  I had wanted to make it this church, but it was a bit off the beaten path (it's not far away, but compared to other places, it wasn't right in the middle of things).

We climbed up the Via di San Francesco di Paola staircase, and the church was right at the top.  It looks more like a loggia (Rick Steves' descriptive word, not mine) than a church.

San Pietro in Vincoli. . .doesn't

look like a church, does it?

Us on the pedestrian staircase of Via

di San Francesco di Paola.  Only one

homeless person on the staircase.

While the church is named for the chains that bound the Apostle Peter on two separate occasions, it might actually be more famous for the Michelangelo statue of Moses.  One set of the chains is said to have held Peter when he and Paul were in the afore-blogged Mamertine Prison, and the other is from when Herod jailed Peter in Jerusalem.  In the late stage days of ancient Rome, the Jerusalem chains ended up as a gift from an Eastern empress.

The chains that twice bound

Apostle Peter.  When the

chains were placed next to

each other, it is said that

they miraculously joined

together to form one set

of chains.

FOTB (Friend of the Blog) Kate Ragan emailed me in Rome the following note:

"Dear Glen,

You're probably home already, but one of my favorite things to do is to pop in and see Michaelangelo's Moses in the church of Saint Pietro in Vincoli.  Nobody's ever there and you get to just stand in awe a few feet away from a magnificent Michaelangelo."

Kate's note made the day before our last day.  Reading it, I resolved to include the church on our lists of last day stops.  And let me tell you, it was worth it. 

The piece d' resistance is the Michelangelo statue, which was supposed to be the centerpiece of the tomb of Pope Julius II.  Michelangelo was 88 when he did, and left the tomb an unfinished masterpiece.

What was done on the tomb (lots, as it turns out) is in this church.  The Moses statue depicts the moment, after meeting with God, he turns and sees the Jews worshipping a golden calf idol.  Moses glares at this people, and his body projects both physical and moral strength.  He is about to spring up out of his chair to punish the Children of Israel, the Ten Commandments tucked under his arm.  

The muscles, the beard, the glare.  All are amazing works of sculpture.  I can do a pretty good glare, but I can't grow a beard or develop muscles that defined.  Meanwhile, Michelangelo carved impressive powerful muscles, an amazing beard, and a glare befitting a father let down in the worst way by his children

It's said that if Michelangelo's Moses were standing, he would be 13 feet tall.  I haven't done the measurements, or the math, to ensure that's true, but it's believe the way Moses fills the room.

Michelangelo gave his Moses horns.  In medieval times, the Hebrew word for "rays of light" (halo) was translated incorrectly as "horns."  Michelangelo knew that wasn't right, but wanted to give the statue a sense of "terrabilita," a word coined by his contemporaries to define the mixture of terror and awe in his art.  It is applied to his sculptures, particularly the David and also his Moses.

Look "terrabilita" up -- in Wikipedia the first picture is the head of Moses.  Imagine have a word coined specifically to describe your work.  

This look is what his

contemporaries meant by

"Terribilita."  Note the 

two horns at the top of

the photo.

Oh, don't worry, there's more pictures -- different angles, different zooms -- coming of Moses in this post.  The full tomb was supposed to be five times larger than it is now.  Other parts of the project are elsewhere, such as the "Prisoners" are in Florence and "Slaves" are in the Louvre.

Front view.

The day's light constantly

changes the look of the

sculpture.  The photo below

looks much whiter than

the soft golden glow this

picture gives off.  I took

the one below after wandering

the church for a while

after taking the picture

above.

This angle is much better to see

impact of the two horns on

his head.

The church itself was founded in 440 and was built to house the chains.  While it was significantly redone in 1475, the 20 Doric columns flanking the nave are from the original church.  

Some of the Doric columns, 

nearly 1600 years old.

The central ceiling painting from around 1700 show the chains healing someone possessed by demons.  

The ceiling showing the 

chains healing a demon

possessed man.

The side naves have a number of tombs, some of which feature sculpted skeletons and grim reapers, highlighting the 17th century motto that "remember, you must die").

This Grim Reaper would be

the back of my motorcycle

gang's leather jackets, if I

ran a motorcycle gang and

if we had leather jackets.

(Little known fact: Glen used

to have a motorcycle and would

ride it to Canada and camp.  He

also had a leather jacket.)

You know you've made it

when your tomb features

carved dancing skeletons.