great portraits #9
They call the new Pope 'God's Rottweiler' but by the look of it Pope Innocent X, immortalised around 1650 by Diego Velázquez, was the original. When the Pontiff saw the portrait he said, 'troppo vero'-- 'too truthful'. Study his facial expression - said by a contemporary to be like that of a 'cunning lawyer' - in more detail here. He really looks alive, and that's what makes this such a compelling portrait. That, and Velázquez's incomparable technique. The fact that the artist was honest (and perhaps courageous) enough to show such a powerful man in this less than flattering light speaks volumes too.
"The Pope appears as a terrifying figure with those irascible eyes, the choleric pinkness of his face, the letter that chillingly communicates that he is a man of secular, as well as spiritual, authority reading dispatches and conducting affairs. There is suave confidence in his unexpectedly feminine hand with the ring, waiting to show mercy to the repentant, kneeling sinner. All of this tells us in no uncertain terms just what this man is. Yet he is looking with perhaps a barely restrained impatience, and waiting as Velázquez does his work ..."
Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, April 5 2003
They call the new Pope 'God's Rottweiler' but by the look of it Pope Innocent X, immortalised around 1650 by Diego Velázquez, was the original. When the Pontiff saw the portrait he said, 'troppo vero'-- 'too truthful'. Study his facial expression - said by a contemporary to be like that of a 'cunning lawyer' - in more detail here. He really looks alive, and that's what makes this such a compelling portrait. That, and Velázquez's incomparable technique. The fact that the artist was honest (and perhaps courageous) enough to show such a powerful man in this less than flattering light speaks volumes too.
"The Pope appears as a terrifying figure with those irascible eyes, the choleric pinkness of his face, the letter that chillingly communicates that he is a man of secular, as well as spiritual, authority reading dispatches and conducting affairs. There is suave confidence in his unexpectedly feminine hand with the ring, waiting to show mercy to the repentant, kneeling sinner. All of this tells us in no uncertain terms just what this man is. Yet he is looking with perhaps a barely restrained impatience, and waiting as Velázquez does his work ..."
Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, April 5 2003
posted by alan at 4.5.05
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