Abstract: Few portraits of the Renaissance are as familiar as Raphael's official portrayal of his dynamic patron, Pope Julius II (Fig. 1).2 Praised by Vasari as "tanto vivo e verace, che faceva temere il ritratto a vederlo, come se proprio egli fosse il vivo,"3 Raphael's depiction of the aging pontiff in ca. 1511–12 was a most important model for later papal portraits. It is by now so well known to students of Renaissance art that our image of Julius must inevitably be that of a white-bearded old man. As such the Pope appears in other, equally famous portraits by Raphael, most notably in the Stanza d'Eliodoro, where the bearded pontiff is miraculously present at the Expulsion of Heliodorus and the Mass of Bolsena (Figs. 4–7). So unforgettable are these powerful portrayals that we need to be reminded that the beard was anything but a permanent fixture on the Pope's chin.
Publication Year: 1977
Publication Date: 1977-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 5
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