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Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome Italy

The name of the Dominican church erected in the area which was at one time reserved for Egyptian worship, the Iseum has always been associated with the nearby temple of Minerva Chalcidica. The interior houses exceptional works from the end of the 13th century to the 19th century, when the building underwent a radical restoration. Besides the superb cycle of frescoes by Filippino Lippi, the funeral monuments of five pontiffs from Leo X to Benedict XIII are important.

The 1600's are well represented by the sculptures in the Aldobrandini Chapel and a famous work by Bernini. Catherine of Siena, patron saint of Italy and co-patron saint of Europe; and the Dominican painter, Fra Angelico are buried in the church.

The first version of the Christ carrying the cross, carried out on the 15th June 1514, for Metello Vari, was left unfinished because of a fault in the marble. The present version, outlined in Florence by Michelangelo in 1518, was completed in Roma by students in 1521. Despite the fact that the figure of Christ - whose nudity (later covered by a cloth) shows him, an almost pagan hero, in the guise of the Redeemer while holding the instruments of the passion - appears of great influence, even though it is no longer in the aedicule which was originally on the left-hand pillar of the presbytery, destroyed in the 18th century.

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