Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Cardinals and their Images
- Part I Individuality and Identity: Florence and Rome
- Part II Divided Loyalties: Venice and Rome
- Part III Collecting and Display: Portraits and Worldly Goods
- Part IV Post-Tridentine Piety: The Devout Cardinal
- Conclusion: Cardinal Portraits beyond Italy
- Index
- Plate Section
9 - Portraits as a Sign of Possession: Cardinals and their Protectorships in Early Modern Rome
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Cardinals and their Images
- Part I Individuality and Identity: Florence and Rome
- Part II Divided Loyalties: Venice and Rome
- Part III Collecting and Display: Portraits and Worldly Goods
- Part IV Post-Tridentine Piety: The Devout Cardinal
- Conclusion: Cardinal Portraits beyond Italy
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
Abstract
Cardinals’ portraits were not only intended for private residences and painted by famous artists, but were also produced in multiple copies of variable quality that still can be found on the art market. In these paintings, often based on portrait prints, likeness or artistic merit were not the most important criteria. Inventories show that most of these copies were actually made for religious institutions, such as orders and confraternities, of which these cardinals were appointed protector. This essay deals with the question of how and when these portraits were obtained and where they were displayed; by means of this spatial contextualization, it explains the legal function of these portraits within these institutions.
Keywords: cardinal protectors; portrait prints; copies; Catholic Church; Counter-Reformation
And apart from that, in Rome still many churches, colleges, monasteries and other religious organizations have their cardinal protectors, who have full jurisdiction in all lawsuits, both civil and criminal, religious and profane, for which they can assign the judges, also in the case of appeal […]
After the Council of Trent, the tasks and functions of cardinals were not so much redefined as recalibrated and restructured, and in the process of negotiation within and beyond the papal Curia, this led to an increasing visibility of porporati. This development also affected the function of portraits, and is first of all visible in the production of portrait prints. The idea for this seems already to have been formulated in the 1570s by Alfonso Chacon, the first compiler of a complete set of cardinals’ biographies; in 1628, Andrea Brogiotti published a set of woodcut portraits of Urban VIII, along with all living cardinals; and in 1657, De Rossi turned this one-off concept into an ongoing series of cardinals’ portraits, starting from the College of Cardinals under Alexander VII (Figs. 9.1 and 9.2). This practice was continued by his successors until the late eighteenth century. As a result, the iconography of the cardinal's portrait print, consisting of a bust length depiction showing the sitter with a mozzetta (the shoulder-length mantle) and biretta (the square, ridged cap), became standardized. At the same time, a production of paintings started that followed largely the same visual format.
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- Information
- Portrait Cultures of the Early Modern Cardinal , pp. 231 - 258Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021