The Early Modern Cardinal

This chapter sets out the historical context to the cardinal as a subject of portraiture. It engages recent historiography to explain how the cardinal’s function and role in the Roman Curia, including his relationship to the pope, developed from the fifteenth century onwards, and how this was reflected in the range of men who occupied the cardinal’s office. The Sacred College changed substantially over these centuries, with its proud ‘princes of the Church’ giving way to an altogether humbler breed of Counter-Reformation cleric. Naturally, this affected both how cardinals depicted themselves and how they and others used their depictions.

Portraying the Princes of the Church

This chapter gives a brief overview of the place of cardinal portraits within early modern portraiture as a whole. It explores how certain typologies specific to cardinals evolved in different media over the period. It also considers how these images carried unique meanings and functions that depended on the particular office and duties of the cardinal.

Renaissance Cardinals and Pontifical Mules

Renaissance cardinals proclaimed their status in various ways. When riding, particularly when accompanying the pope or royalty, cardinals preferred to ride on a mule. This essay examines the social, legal, and ceremonial issues surrounding cardinals’ use of mules as a sign of humility, while they simultaneously spent large sums on obtaining and equipping these animals. The grand ceremonial tack for formal processions was essential to the cohesive image that the Sacred College tried to project in public ritual. The examination of images of cardinals on mules, historical accounts in diaries and letters, as well as entries in account books, indicates the importance of the dual image of humility and magnificence portrayed by pontifical mules.

Portraits as Symbols

Unpublished post-mortem cardinals’ inventories report a myriad of low-value cardinals’ portraits hanging in cardinals’ palaces in the late sixteenth century. Why, and how, did prelates select or acquire cardinals’ portraits? Portraits will be studied as a material trace of devotional affinities of Counter-Reformation cardinals and their socio-political networks. Examination of the role of such portraits sometimes reveals surprising professional and spiritual paragons that cardinals held before them. The values of portraits reported in inventories also pose tantalizing questions regarding a cardinal’s persona as a commodity. This essay also examines how such portraits were acquired, considering giftgiving practices of portraits among Vatican circles and the market for images of cardinals.

Miracle-Working Portraits of a Cardinal Saint

The canonization of Carlo Borromeo in November 1610 caused an unprecedented demand for his portraits, from large-scale altarpieces to modest paintings and engravings for domestic use. This chapter will focus on the production and circulation of the devotional medals of San Carlo, the many miracle-working properties attributed to them, and the way church authorities sought to control the craze for these medals by granting (and subsequently annulling) indulgences associated with them.

Role Playing

Leandro Bassano’s historical narrative painting, Honorius III Approving the Rule of St. Dominic in 1216, produced for the sacristy of the Dominican church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, depicts several contemporary cardinals here identified for the first time while accompanying the pope, such as cardinals Giovanni Dolfin and François de Joyeuse beside him. When the painting was executed, Venice was emerging from the difficult papal interdict of 1606, and it was thanks to the diplomatic negotiations of these two cardinals that the crisis was resolved favourably. Using this painting as a case study, this chapter examines how the representation of specific cardinals in public settings could assume a precise historical and political meaning.

The Role of Cardinals’ Portraits in Venice

The most powerful Venetian cardinals in the sixteenth century were arguably those stemming from the Grimani family. This chapter presents a detailed analysis of the MS Morosini Grimani 270 in the Biblioteca del Museo Correr in Venice, focusing on drawings that illustrate the appointment of Grimani cardinals, alongside their portraits. The iconographic derivation of these drawings from existing works of art will be explored through comparison with painted portraits and other visual representations of the Grimani cardinals, some previously unidentified. The possible function of the included cardinal portraits, and the historical scenes relating to them will be investigated, considering the role of images of cardinals within the dynastic strategies and histories of certain families.

Two Cardinal Portraits by Scipione Pulzone in the Harvard Art Museums and their Related Versions

Since the sixteenth century, Scipione Pulzone’s portraiture has been admired for its psychological intensity, exquisite attention to detail, and illusionistic settings. Throughout his career, Scipione painted at least six cardinals. These paintings exist in multiple versions, yet the issue of how Scipione went about creating them has remained little examined. This study focuses on the portraits of Cardinals Giovanni Ricci and Michele Bonelli (both housed in the Harvard Art Museums), and their related versions to contend with Scipione’s artistic practice. It considers the function of these and other multiple cardinal portraits by Scipione with regard to their collection and display. It also draws attention to the central role of portraits of cardinals and Scipione’s lasting contribution to this genre.

Visual and Verbal Portraits of Cardinals in Fifteenth-Century Florence

Although the city of Florence lacked a cardinal for most of the fifteenth century, the city was not lacking in cardinal portraits during the same period. This chapter examines two visual portraits of cardinals by Bicci di Lorenzo and Francesco di Antonio del Chierico alongside written portraits found in a diary by Bartolommeo di Michele del Corazza and the Lives of Vespasiano da Bisticci. The chapter argues that specific contexts can help explain the choices made by artists and authors to provide or shun idiosyncratic details in their works.

Group Portraits of Cardinal Bembo and his Friends in the Wake of Trent

Despite being primarily famous as a poet and literary theorist, Pietro Bembo’s visual legacy is dominated by images of him as an aged cardinal. The majority of these images of Cardinal Bembo were produced posthumously, and several representations occur in group portraits including cardinals affiliated with Paul III’s programme of ecclesiastical reform; many of these individuals were Bembo’s closest friends at the papal court. Exploring the important place that Bembo assumed within the Roman Curia during his cardinalate, and his association with the group known as the spirituali, this essay will consider how cardinal portraiture could be used to articulate visually a particular agenda of church reform.