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San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome Italy

San Pietro in Vincoli, The old exodian Basilica was rebuilt by Sixtus III in 439-440 over older buildings. it name is derived from the Empress Licinia Eudoxia whose mother had the chains of St. Peter brought from Jerusalem to unite them to those which had chained the apostle during his imprisonment in Roma. Tradition has it that, on contact the two reliquaries miraculously welded together, as portrayed in the large painting in the centre of the ceiling of the nave (1705-6). The bronze funeral urn with the venerated reliquaries is on display in the crypt, rebuilt together with the presbyterial area during the second half of the 19th century.

The Funeral Monument to Julius II had a complex genesis, documented by a good five contracts, that began with the commission by the pontiff in March, 1505, for a payment of 10,000 ducats. Shortly after arriving in Florence, Michelangelo undertook the project with passion, originally destined for the Vatican Basilica and studied for a very effective arrangement. The design, approved in the following April, describes it as a colossal isolated pyramid structure, embellished on three floors with more than thirty bronze statues and bas-reliefs.

The monument is characterized by a pedestal with two niches with feminine figures inside, alluding to the virtue of the deceased and directly inspired by prototypes of classic sculpture. The Moses was sculptured around 1515 and then re-used in the centre of the present monument where, originally, there was a door leading into the internal chapel. The modifications made to the coronation were even more complex, it was initially conceived as an independent building with the sarcophagus and the statue of the pontiff supported by allegorical figures, further simplified as an architectonic structure placed on a wall with the Virgin and Child above.

After the temporary escape to Florence caused by the disinterest of the client, what the artist called "tragedy of the tomb" it accompanied him in the more tormented phases of his experience as man and artist. In 1532, he finally arrived at a solution and the entire monument was rearranged, in February 1545, in the right transept of the Franciscan church of S. Peter in Vincoli of which the pontiff, belonging to the order, was owner. The pose of the pontiff is important, he is portrayed in the act of rising from the sarcophagus as if awakening from the torpor of physical death.

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