Saturday 8 September 2007

San Pietro In Vincoli

When I was on my way heading towards the Colosseum, I saw a steps on the road side and few artists working on the piazza, as I have plenty of time I decided to climb up to the top and have a look if there's anything nice.

Like any other cities, Rome can't escape from the youth creativity.

Rome is a place where you must bring at least one travel guide book so that you won't miss anything. I'm sure I'll miss San Pietro In Vincoli if I walk pass the building which looks so ordinary without a guide book.

I was actually quite tired of visiting all the churches in the Europe even though all of them got great interiors and unless you spend reading a bit of history about the church it's pointless to visit thousands of those.

I've shoot many pictures on these guardian angels and the green spots appeared on every picture. I'm not sure whether was it just optical effect or something else...

The church was built to house an important relic, the chains ("vincoli") that held Saint Peter when he was in Jerusalem and those that held him in Rome, which miraculously joined together.

I thought that's the only highlight of the church so I decided to continue my journey else where. Well, I'm that kind of person who most time only read 30% of an article and think I've done enough. When I saw some people surrounding the statues on the right hand side of the altar I pulled out the guide book and read the bottom part which I did not finish earlier.

It is Moses carved by Michelangelo for the tomb of Pope Julius II. This is the famous unfinished masterpiece of Michelangelo which occupied him on and off much of his career and eventually he reluctantly gave it up to paint the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, which I visited later.

It is a bit commercialised though, the light around the tomb will only lit up when someone put in coins to activate it. I waited for some other people to contribute so that I can take the pictures under decent lighting.

3 comments:

albert said...

The green spots are ghosts from shooting with a cheap glare-ful UV filter. HMC coated filters help, especially with bright F1.4 lenses.

Also note that it is a direct 180 degree rotation of bright spots. You could use it to your advantage, compositionally.

Eugene Goh said...

Thanks Albert

3377 said...

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others people wont feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. As we let our own light shine. We unconsciously give other permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear; our present automatically liberated others.