after: ʻPOPE INNOCENTIUS Xʼ, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez - 1650, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome, Italy. Velázquez is now recognised as one of the most highly individualistic realists from the Baroque period, famed for his portraits, mythological and religious subjects. In the 20th Century, Francis Bacon transfused the spirit of Velasquez into his own shocking series of Pope Paintings. Although considered confrontational at the time, the Pope liked Velázquezʼs portrait of himself. It still hangs in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome.
after: ʻPOPE GIULIO IIʼ Rafaello Sanzio - 1512, National Gallery, London, England. And after: ʻPOPE LEO Xʼ Rafaello Sanzio - 1515, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy. Rafaello Sanzio (1483-1520) was one of the most important painters from the high Renaissance. In the spirit of the age, Sanzioʼs paintings depicted his subjects in a state of harmonious self-consciousness. Lacking the dramatic settings of Michelangelo or the eternal search of Leonardo, we easily forget that he is the artist who gave the Renaissance its truest face. He seemed to work effortlessly and without hesitation. Sadly he died at a young age.