A Guide to
​St Peter's Basilica

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Monument to
​Pope Innocent VIII

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Monument to Pope Innocent VIII

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Monument to Pope Innocent VIII (1492-98) by Antonio del Pollaiuolo
​(Giovanni Battista Cibo, Genoa, b.1432/r.1484-92)

The monument to Pope Innocent VIII (r. 1484-92) is by the Florentine painter and sculptor Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1429-98). 

Upper Part of the Funerary Monument to Pope Innocent VIII

Pollaiuolo's beautiful monument to Pope Innocent VIII was originally created for the old basilica. It depicts the pope both alive and dead, but for some inexplicable reason the positions were inverted when the monument was set up in the new basilica.

​In the upper part of the monument Innocent VIII holds what looks like a small spade, but which is, in fact, the tip of the lance that pierced the side of Christ. According to the Gospel of St. John: 'one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water' (19:34, KJV).

For centuries this relic of the Holy Lance was kept in Constantinople. However, in 1492, shortly before his death, the pope received it as a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512). The Holy Lance is also known as the Lance of Longinus, the name given to the soldier, who, according to tradition, later converted to Christianity. 

Funerary Monument to Pope Innocent VIII (det.)

The inscription on the sepulchre makes the erroneous claim that the discovery of the New World (NOVI ORBIS) took place during his pontificate, when, in fact, Innocent VIII died on July 25th 1492, little over a week before Columbus set sail from Spain.

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