Popes and their associates

Popes and their associates

Antonio Barberini (1607–1671) – one of the three “musketeers” of Urban VIII

Popes and their associates

Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphilj (1622–1666) – an arthritis-filled expiation of the papal nephew

Popes and their associates

Ferdinando I de’ Medici (1549–1609) – a lover of antiquity, who avoided papal disfavor

Popes and their associates

Francesco Barberini (1597–1679) – papal nepot, admirer of books and art, defender of Galileo

Popes and their associates

Francesco Maria del Monte (1549–1626) – a cardinal full of passion for alchemy, music and painting

Popes and their associates

Cardinal Bessarion (1403?–1473) – the one who wanted to save Constantinople

Popes and their associates

Cardinal Flavio Chigi (1631–1693) – a true dandy and a Roman trendsetter

Popes and their associates

Cardinal Innocenzo Ciocchi del Monte (1532–1577) – the pope’s favorite with criminal inclinations

Popes and their associates

Cardinal Paolo Camillo Sfondrati (1560–1618) – chasing sainthood

Popes and their associates

Charles Borromeo (1538–1584) – an extraordinary nepot, critic and saint of the Church

Popes and their associates

Ludovico Ludovisi (1595–1632) – lover of Antiquity and an extremely bright papal nepot

Popes and their associates

Maria Clementina Sobieska (1701–1735) between reality and a dream

Popes and their associates

Olimpia Maidalchini (1591–1657) – a very entrepreneurial papal sister-in-law

Popes and their associates

Pope Alexander I (? – 116?) – a holy shepherd of the holy water

Popes and their associates

Pope Alexander VI (1431–1503) – an ambitious strategist with a great heart for women

Popes and their associates

Pope Alexander VII (1599–1667) – a great constructor with a lead coffin in his bedroom

Popes and their associates

Pope Alexander VIII (1610–1691), Pietro Vito Ottoboni – a profligate enthusiast of old books

Popes and their associates

Pope Benedict XIV (1675–1758) – modernizer, reformer, a fierce enemy of Jews and Freemasons

Popes and their associates

Pope Boniface VIII (1235?–1303), Benedetto Caetani – pope from the eighth circle of hell

Popes and their associates

Pope Celestine I (?–432) – philosopher striving for the divinity of the mother of Jesus

Popes and their associates

Pope Damasus I (approx. 305–384) – the one who changed the face of the Roman Church forever

Popes and their associates

Pope Felix III (Felix II) (?–492) – a saintly, uncompromising and strict pope

Popes and their associates

Pope Formosus (?816–896) – meaning, how to posthumously become a martyr

Popes and their associates

Pope Gelasius I (?–496) – meaning Christ’s first Vicar on Earth

Popes and their associates

Pope Gregory I the Great (approx. 540–604) – a monk by conviction, who changed the face of the Church for centuries

Popes and their associates

Pope Gregory XIII (1502–1585) – a tireless counter-reformer and an efficient reformer of the calendar

Popes and their associates

Pope Gregory XIV (1535–1591) – pious, modest, and lacking in will

Popes and their associates

Pope Gregory XV (1554–1623) – a sickly and phlegmatic protector of the Jesuits

Popes and their associates

Pope Hilarius (?–468) – a generous donor and a defender of orthodoxy

Popes and their associates

Pope Hippolytus (approx. 170–235) – an overzealous saintly rigorist

Popes and their associates

Pope Honorius I (?–638), a fallible pontifex maximus, in addition to being a heretic

Popes and their associates

Pope Honorius III (1150–1227) – a significant Church strategist and an uncompromising ruler

Popes and their associates

Pope Innocent I (? – 417) – a charismatic leader of the Church in times of chaos and uncertainty

Popes and their associates

Pope Innocent III (1160–1216) – the first Vicar of Christ on Earth

Popes and their associates

Pope Innocent VIII (1432–1492) – sickly, yet resourceful protector of his own children

Popes and their associates

Pope Innocent XI (1611–1689) – a strict reformer, moralist and subduer of art

Popes and their associates

Pope Innocent XII (1615–1700) – an exemplary shepherd and a protector of castrates

Popes and their associates

Pope John XII (?937–964) – meaning the one who was mortally wounded by the devil in the bed of a married woman

Popes and their associates

Pope Julius II (1443–1513) – a valiant ruler, courageous politician and a great protector of art

Popes and their associates

Pope Julius III (1487–1555) – a dream about the power of ...a family

Popes and their associates

Pope Callixtus III (1378–1458) – a disliked aesthetic from the Pyrenean Peninsula

Popes and their associates

Pope Clement IX (1600–1669) – a librettist and humanist devoted to God

Popes and their associates

Pope Clement VII (1478–1534) – a powerless politician and a firm protector of artists

Popes and their associates

Pope Clement VIII (1536–1605) – an enemy of nudity, a pious and kind despot

Popes and their associates

Pope Clement X (1590–1676) – a humble pope with an ambitious nepot

Popes and their associates

Pope Leo I the Great (400?–461) – defender of Rome and the man behind the power of the Church

Popes and their associates

Pope Leo X (1475–1521) – a generous patron of art and an enthusiast of parties and feasts

Popes and their associates

Pope Nicholas V (1397–1455) – the one, who made art into a foundation of faith

Popes and their associates

Pope Paschal I (?–824) – a collector of relics and a self-admirer

Popes and their associates

Pope Paul II (1417–1471) – an enthusiast of carnival parties

Popes and their associates

Pope Paul III (1468–1549) – an uncompromising patron of artists and his own family

Popes and their associates

Pope Paul V (1552–1621) – a generous funder and a foresighted city manager

Popes and their associates

Pope Pelagius II (?–590) – a protector of the needy and of Gregory the Great

Popes and their associates

Pope Pius II (1405–1464) – a complete humanist on St. Peter’s throne

Popes and their associates

Pope Pius XII (1876–1958) – a silent pontifex maximus

Popes and their associates

Pope Sergius III (approx. 870–911) – meaning „ the slave of every vice”

Popes and their associates

Pope Stephen VI (? – 897) – a story of the battle between the pope and a cadaver

Popes and their associates

Pope Sixtus III (390–440) – a great constructor of Christian Rome

Popes and their associates

Pope Sixtus IV (1414–1484) – a man of Renaissance and the creator of a new Rome

Popes and their associates

Pope Sixtus V (1521–1590) – the bane of bandits and womanizers

Popes and their associates

Pope Sylvester (? -335) – a marginal figure, yet a saint

Popes and their associates

Pope Symmachus (? – 514) – a controversial but unrelenting shepherd

Popes and their associates

Pope Simplicius (? – 483) – a bishop of Rome on the border of two eras

Popes and their associates

Pope Theodore I (?–649) – a pope who brought the dead to Rome

Popes and their associates

Pope Urban I (? – 230) – the beginning of the historical policy of the Church

Popes and their associates

Pope Urban VIII (1568–1644) – pontifex maximus of the Baroque art

Popes and their associates

Platina (Bartolomeo Sacchi) (1421–1481) – humanist, rebel, courtier

Popes and their associates

Scipione Caffarelli Borghese (1577–1633) – cardinal and papal nepot with truly earthly passions

Sleeping Hermaphrodite – the ever-present third gender

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Sleeping Hermaphrodite – the ever-present third gender

The figure of the Hermaphrodite stimulated the imagination of the people of Antiquity in a particular way. A being of two genders – both female and male – seemed privileged exceptional, and completely ideal, however, it also aroused ambivalent feelings and suspicion. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that a figure with male genitalia and female breasts garnered a lot of attention both in literature as well as in the visual arts. When it comes to the latter, the favored topic (although not the only one), was a sleeping Hermaphrodite. This is how he is depicted, stretched on b...

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Simon Vouet’s Herodias with the Head of St. John the Baptist – femme fatale of the Baroque

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Simon Vouet’s Herodias with the Head of St. John the Baptist – femme fatale of the Baroque

Femme fatale is associated with painting and literature of the XIX century – with women who devoured the hearts of men, cold-blooded demons of sex who with premeditation led men to their downfall. However, beautiful, erotic, attractive, but at the same time ruthless and sophisticated women have always fascinated artists. We can find them in ancient literature and mythology, as well as in the Old and New Testaments. We can also see them in the painting creations of Caravaggio and his successors because it was exactly in the XVII century when Salome, Judith, and Herodias became fashionable...

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Spada Chapel – ancestors, meaning capital which cannot be underestimated

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Spada Chapel – ancestors, meaning capital which cannot be underestimated

Numerous posthumous chapels, which we can see during a pilgrimage through Roman churches are generally filled with decorations and works of art. They arouse our respect, and approval, and let our thoughts linger on the grandeur and significance of the family, but above all their sense of art. It is quite seldom that we think about them in purely practical categories, not to say mercantile. It is a rare situation indeed that we can say that the main motive of their creation was not only the desire to immortalize one’s fame, but also the prestige of future, yet unborn successors of the fam...

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