Absolute Monarchs (67 page)
The greatest pope of the Middle Ages, Innocent III (1198–1216). Thirteenth-century fresco, Monastery of Sacro Speco, Subiaco.
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Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303) inaugurates, from the benediction balcony of the Lateran Palace, the first Jubilee in 1300. Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.
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Christ presents the keys to St. Peter. Fresco by Pietro Perugino, Sistine Chapel, Rome.
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Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503) at prayer. Detail from Resurrection fresco by Pinturicchio, Borgia Apartments, Vatican Palace, Rome.
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Pope Julius II (1503–1513) toward the end of his life. Raphael, National Gallery, London.
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Pope Pius II (1458–1464) at Ancona, awaiting the arrival of the princes of Europe for a Crusade. Pinturicchio, Piccolomini Library, Siena Cathedral.
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Pope Leo X (de’ Medici, 1513–1521) and his nephews. Painted by Raphael in 1518, soon after Leo had appointed him architect of the new St. Peter’s. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
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Pope Clement VII (de’ Medici, 1523–1534). It was he who refused to allow the annulment of Henry VIII’s first marriage and endured the sack of Rome in 1527. Sebastiano del Piombo, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
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Pope Paul III (Farnese, 1534–1549). Father of four illegitimate children before his election. One of two portraits by Titian, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
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Pope Paul V (Borghese, 1605–1621). An arch-reactionary, he first took issue with Galileo for his espousal of Copernicus’s theory that the sun, rather than the earth, was the center of the universe. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.
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Pope Innocent X (Pamfili, 1644–1655). Dominated through most of his reign by his reputed mistress, the sinister and corrupt Olimpia Maidalchini. Velazquez, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome.
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Pope Pius VII (Chiaramonti, 1800–1823). Obliged to deal as best he could with Napoleon, who treated him abominably. Jacques-Louis David, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
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