After the death of Pope Clement VII in 1534, after a mere two days of conclave, Alessandro Farnese was elected to the most important Church office. Since that time he represented the style of governing of his patron Alexander VI, and privately he was much like him as well. When he was a cardinal, he had fathered four children (Silvia Ruffini), which he legitimized, provided with estates in the State of the Church and titles, guaranteed profitable posts and apanages connected with them. He also began the construction of the Palazzo Farnese family palace, whose design he initially entrusted to Antonio da Sangallo, and later to Michelangelo. The best illustration of the “family-oriented” policy of the pope is a portrait completed by Titian (Museo Capodimonte, Naples), depicting Paul III as an old man accompanied by two of his grandsons – one of them Alessandro, is already a cardinal, the other, Ottavio, will soon become the Duke of Parma and Piacenza. On the other hand, for some reason, the pope removed his sister Giulia from any kind of power. It must be assumed, that there is little truth to the rumors that he maintained intimate relationship with his daughter, or poisoned his own mother and niece, but he did most likely belong to this group of popes who agreed with the political theory of Niccolò Machiavelli, who preached that the ends justify the means. This is also an explanation for his taxation of Roman prostitutes.

During his pontificate there was an increase in the activities of the Roman Inquisition, which vigilantly investigated all deviations from the Church doctrine both in Italy as well as outside its borders. Both Giordano Bruno and Galileo will fall victim to it in subsequent decades. However, it was also this pope to whom Nicholas Copernicus dedicated his “subversive” for the Church work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. It was also the pope who limited the slave trade and objected to the inhuman treatment of Indians in America. In publishing the bulla on the subject, he ensured that they possessed a soul and in order to protect them from the colonists, he ordered the Franciscans to baptize them and in this way save their lives. It was also he who approved the rule of the new order – the Jesuits, in which among others, there was a formula of an overseas mission.

In face of the spread of the Reformation, under pressure from Emperor Charles V, Paul III called a the Council of Trent (1545), which was to become a forum of discussion for the reform of the Church. Its talks were suspended four years later, which was also connected with the death of the pope.

Paul III died after a violent attack of the fever and was buried in the newly created St. Peter’s Basilica (San Pietro in Vaticano). His funerary monument was completed in 1575 by a student of Michelangelo – Guglielmo della Porta. It shows the enthroned pope, at whose feet there are the personifications of two virtues – Justice and Prudence. The latter, with an old woman’s sagging bust and a veil on her head, is – as tradition would  have it – the pope’s mother. The former, on the other side –as an allegory of Justice – is reportedly his sister – the beautiful Giulia. She was also initially depicted semi-nude, later however, her body was covered with a bronze dress in order not to offend the faithful. The monument was placed in the altar apse on the left side – in such an unfavorable, that it is barely visible. From the artistic point of view, it is most likely one of the more successful of the numerous papal pedestals in the Vatican Basilica. Another, artistically inferior monument of Paul III, completed by the same artist, is found in the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli.

Pope Paul III from the Farnese family was an ambitious patron of the arts, as some claim, the last Renaissance pope also in that regard. It is thanks to his attention and admiration of the great talent of Michelangelo that one of the greatest works of European art was completed. Despite objections of many, who in the begun during the pontificate of Clement VII main altar of the Sistine Chapel saw immorality and promiscuity, disregarding all disapproval he led to the continuation of work and an unveiling of the altar in 1541 (The Last Judgement). It was not until the death of Paul III that people dared criticize the artist’s work, then – due to its immorality – “it was dressed”, covering the nudity of the 35 figures depicted in the composition.

The pope also ordered his favored artist to provide new form for Capitoline Square as well as further works on the Vatican Basilica and the papal apartments. It was here that he desired to leave a lasting impression of his pontificate. This is the fresco-decorated Paoline Chapel (with the Conversion of St. Paul and The Crucifixion of St. Peter inside) – one of the last, and unfortunately not the best works of Michelangelo. During the pontificate of Paul III, the construction of a representative staircase (Scala Regia) in the Apostolic Palace, was also started, as well as the painting decorations of two room in the Castle of the Holy Angel (Hall of Apollo and Hall of Paolina).