PORTRAIT OF POPE
LEO X
WITH CARDINALS GIULIO DE MEDICI
AND LUIGI DE ROSSI
by Raphael
1518
Perhaps those who connect Raphael's name only with beautiful Madonnas and idealized
figures from the classical world may be surprised to see Raphael's portrait of
his great patron Pope Leo X of the Medici family, in the company of two cardinals.
There is nothing idealized in the slightly puffed head of the near-sighted Pope,
who has just examined an old manuscript (somewhat similar in style and period
to the Queen Mary's Psalter. The velvets and damasks in their various rich tones
add to the atmosphere of pomp and power, but one can well imagine that these men
are not at ease. These were troubled times, for we remember that at the very period
when this portrait was painted Luther had attacked the Pope for the way he raised
money for the new St Peter's. It so happens that it was Raphael himself whom Leo
X had put in charge of this building enterprise after Bramante had died in 1514,
and thus he had also become an architect, designing churches, villas and palaces
and studying the ruins of ancient Rome. Unlike his great rival Michelangelo, though,
he got on well with people and could keep a busy workshop going. Thanks to his
sociable qualities the scholars and dignitaries of the papal court made him their
companion. There was even talk of his being made a cardinal when he died on his
thirty-seventh birthday, almost as young as Mozart, having crammed into his brief
life an astonishing diversity of artistic achievements."