The Portraits of the Popes

Of late years it would appear that the subject of Papal Iconography has been singularly neglected; nor as far as we are aware has the subject been at all exhaustively treated in any monograph. Yet if its claim to importance calls for justification, it should suffice to quote the following passage in which J. A. Symonds records the impression made upon him by the busts of the Popes (Fig. I) which adorn the walls of the Duomo of Siena: ‘One most remarkable feature’ he wrote ‘of the Duomo of Siena is a line of heads of the Popes carried all round the church above the lower arches. Larger than life, white solemn faces, they lean each from his separate niche, crowned with the triple tiara, and labelled with the name he bore. Their accumulated majesty brings the whole past history of the Church into the presence of its living members. A bishop walking up the nave of Siena must feel as a Roman felt among the waxen images of ancestors renowned in council or in war. Of course these portraits are imaginary for the most part, but the artists have contrived to vary their features and expression with great skill.’

Ancient history · Art · Art history · Byzantine architecture · Iconography · Portrait · Subject (documents · Classics · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

• The Laurentian Schism

  Open Access•John Moorhead•Church History•1978

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