Portrait of Pope Julius II

Two versions of this painting have historically been attributed to Raphael, one in the Uffizi (reproduced here), and one in the National Gallery in London. Modern scholarship tends to identify the London version as the original, with the Uffizi’s executed by Raphael’s workshop.

Julius II (born Giuliano della Rovere, 1443–1513, Pope from 1503 until his death) brought Raphael to Rome, commissioning him, inter alia, to paint the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican Palace, including the monumental School of Athens. Julius also oversaw the demolition of Old Saint Peter’s, and the commissioning of Michelangelo to design its replacement. He furthermore founded what would become the Vatican Museum, notably through his acquisition of the Belvedere Apollo and the recently discovered Laocoön Group.

Raphael’s portrait captures the aged Pope in the last months of his life, his beard grown long in mourning for the territorial losses of the Papal States to the invading French forces of Louis XII, and seemingly weighed down by the burdens of his office and long life. It is a strikingly intimate portrait. Vasari records that the image was ‘so alive and true that it made people afraid to look at the portrait, as if he were actually alive.’

An excellent cabinet-sized copy in a striking Florentine frame.