Pope Clement X (1590–1676)

For a biography of Gaulli, see 2014.277. As noted there, Gaulli (or Baciccio, as he was known) was the outstanding portraitist of his day, having as his only competition the Flemish painter Jacob Ferdinand Voet (1639–1689). Recognition of the extent and importance of this activity is fairly recent (see Francesco Petrucci, Baciccio: Giovan Battista Gaulli, 1639–1709, Rome, 2009, pp. 128–71). Indeed, according to his biographer, Lione Pascoli, "his portraits were innumerable, having done all the cardinals and all the personages of his day who were in Rome, and the seven pontiffs who reigned from Alexander VII to Clement XI; and in this he showed great art and singular mastery, so that he can justly be ranked among the most famous and expert who ever lived." (Vite dei pittori, Rome, 1730, p. 207). Gaulli employed a wide repertory of poses to convey the occupation and social status of his sitters as well as to confer on them a quality of living presence. His portraits of cardinals amount to a virtual who’s who in the Catholic hierarchy, among the most impressive being those of Cardinal Giulio Spinola (Fondazione Cavallini Sgarbi, Ro Ferrarese) and Cardinal Marco Galli (National Gallery, London). The composition of the first relates to a well-established tradition of painted portraits in which the sitter is shown three quarter length, holding a letter and looking out at the viewer, as though interrupted. The other, by contrast, closely relates to Bernini’s sculpted portrait busts: the figure is angled to the picture plane with the head turned toward the viewer, and the mozzetta (a short elbow-length cape that covers the shoulders and is buttoned down the front) is employed as a sort of socle for the head, its folds giving added vivacity to the composition. Gaulli sometimes enriched this formula by showing the arm of the cardinal emerging from beneath the mozzetta and holding a piece of paper or cardinal’s hat (biretta). His enormously successful papal portraits are often known in multiple versions of varying quality since they were much in demand as diplomatic gifts. In Gaulli’s bust-length portraits of Popes Alexander VII, Clement IX, and Clement XI, the dominant Berninian scheme is further animated by showing the sitter raising his right hand in blessing as he gazes at the viewer. By this means Gaulli created a likeness at once official and personal.

The Portrait: In the case of the portrait of Clement X Altieri, Gaulli was inspired not only by the example of Bernini, with whom he was closely associated, but also by the portrait of Pope Innocent X commissioned from Velázquez in 1650 (Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Rome), in which the texture and wrinkles of the red silk fabric of the mozzetta provide a dazzling contrast to the stern features of the face. Gaulli was intimately familiar with Velázquez’s portrait as in 1671, as part of a series of six portraits for Cardinal Flavio Chigi, he was paid for a bust-length variant of it—eliminating the chair and arms. This commission underscores the popularity of displaying series of papal portraits. In this case, two of the portraits—those of Innocent X and Alexander VII—were of recently deceased popes while three were of Clement X and one of his adopted cardinal nephew. All of them must have been copies or replicas of existing portraits. (The document is published in M. Fagiolo dell’Arco, D. Graf, and F. Petrucci, Giovan Battista Gaulli, Il Baciccio, exh. cat., Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia, 1999, p. 115). The same is true of the portrait of Clement X (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) that belonged to Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici, in whose collection it was inventoried in 1675–76 (Petrucci 2009, pp. 118, 371–72). All told, prior to the appearance of The Met’s picture, seven versions of Clement’s portrait were known. Of these, the finest was judged to be that in the Uffizi (see Petrucci 2009, pp. 371–74). However, as noted by Petrucci (in an email in the museum’s archives), The Met’s portrait—which was unknown prior to its sale at auction in 2017—is unquestionably superior to that in the Uffizi, being distinguished by the rich color and treatment of the mozzetta, the soft modeling of the flesh, and the liveliness of the gaze. It may well be the prime version, in which case it would have been commissioned on the occasion of Emilio Bonaventura Altieri’s accession to the papacy as Clement X on April 29, 1670. Not long after—perhaps in January 1671, when Clement sanctioned the cult of Blessed Ludovica Albertoni—Bernini was engaged by the adopted cardinal-nephew Paluzzo degli Albertoni to design the Altieri chapel in San Francesco a Ripa, for which Gaulli painted the altarpiece behind Bernini’s famous statue of the Blessed Ludovica. A version of Clement’s portrait was displayed in the Altieri palace at Oriolo Romano above the papal throne (see Petrucci, in Il Baciccio un anno dopo: La collezione Chigi, restauri e nuove scoperte, exh. cat., Palazzo Chigi, Ariccia. Milan, 2001, p. 20; and Petrucci 2009, p. 373, no. A14e). A drawing by Gaulli in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle (inv. 5533) shows the pope in profile.

Clement X: Emilio Bonaventura Altieri descended from an old Roman family. He gained his degree in law from the Collegio Romano and was ordained in 1624, becoming bishop of Camerino, a position previously held by his mother’s brother. As papal nuncio in Naples, he had the task of re-establishing peace following the populist uprising of Masaniello. He became cardinal in 1669 and the following year was elected pope—an office he finally accepted despite his age. He came to rely on his adopted cardinal nephew Paluzzi-Altieri. Clement’s biggest task was rapprochement between France and Spain. It was under him that Bernini designed the Altar of the Sacrament in Saint Peter’s with a view to the Jubilee of 1675. It was also under Clement that Bernini, together with Gaulli, decorated the Altieri chapel in San Francesco a Ripa (see fig. 4 above; Clement had adopted as his nephew Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi degli Albertoni and beatified the cardinal's ancestor Ludovica Albertoni, whose ecstasy is the subject of Bernini's sculptural group).

Keith Christiansen 2018

Support: The original support is a plain-weave, medium-weight canvas, which was lined to a secondary canvas with an aqueous adhesive and attached to a strainer with bent sprigs. The strainer, which appears to be original, has two branded marks on the vertical members: a coat of arms and initials within two hearts. The original turnover edges are preserved.

Preparation: The canvas was prepared with a very thin buff-colored priming layer.

Paint Layers: Gaulli combined careful observation with facile paint handling to create this remarkably lifelike portrait. Specific details indicate a painter who was closely studying his model: the slight indent at the tip of his nose, the stern furrows in his brow, and the fine white strokes beneath the irises that suggest a watery gaze—all combine to create the sense of a living individual. The extraordinary portrait is complemented by rich effects of costume. The artist fashioned the range of textures by cannily varying his paint handling. He stippled impasted paint to create the fur trim, and then formed the translucent linen collar by scumbling white paint over the fur collar, followed by fine strokes of white to suggest its delicate weave.

The x-radiograph (see fig. 5 above) sheds some light on Gaulli’s painting technique: he first set out the structure of the drapery, then laid in the rich fabric of the mozzetta and accounted for the fall of light. In both the cap and the robe he painted the major folds using broad strokes of what appears to be lead white, then layered red glazes to achieve the deep ruby color. The x-radiograph also reveals broad radiopaque strokes around the figure, which were ultimately integrated into the olive-brown background. These broad strokes were seemingly also applied in an early stage of painting, as the artist was establishing the contours of the figure.

Technical study of the painting alongside the x-radiograph also revealed a small change in the sitter’s proper right sleeve: with the initial broad brushstrokes, the artist set out a fold that continued off the edge of the composition and subsequently decided to shorten the sleeve and show the cuff. He painted the fur trim and the white sliver of sleeve on top of this fold and modified it with a red glaze. This small change, taken together with the initial registration strokes described above, points to an artist working out his composition on the canvas rather than copying from another source. Furthermore, the facility of the paint handling and lifelike quality of the portrait point to an accomplished painter at work and close observation of the sitter, rather than a workshop copy.

The painting is in very good condition. Other than losses associated with the old tear, there are only minor paint losses scattered around the edges and some damages near the bottom edge. The deep red glazes are wonderfully well preserved.

Sophie Scully 2017

private collection, Paderborn, Germany (until ca. 1977); private collection, Germany, by descent (ca. 1977–2017; sale, Christie's, New York, October 31, 2017, no. 27, to The Met)

Keith Christiansen in "Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2016–2018." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 76 (Fall 2018), p. 37, ill. (color).

The frame (see fig. 6 above), of British make, is of the period and of the type known as Carlo Maratta. This type of frame, inspired by Roman eighteenth-century models, was extremely popular and was found on British as well as Italian paintings. This one comes from a painting formerly ascribed to John Opie and sold by the Museum (as British Painter) in 2016 (24.80.488).