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Portrait of Innocent X
Diego Velázquez · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599–1660)
- Date
- c. 1650
- Dimensions
- 141 x 119 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome, Italy
Velázquez painted Pope Innocent X during his second stay in Rome around 1650. Seated in a red chair, dressed in red and white, the pope stares out with a sharp, suspicious look that seems to see straight through the viewer.
A closer look
The painting is a symphony of reds: the silk cape, the cap, the velvet chair and the curtain behind all differ subtly in texture and tone. Velázquez’s quick, loose brushwork suggests the shimmer of silk and the folds of the white lace rochet without describing every detail. The pope holds a folded letter, perhaps a petition. He is said to have remarked that the portrait was “too truthful”, yet he rewarded the painter generously.
History of the painting
Velázquez painted the portrait in Rome in 1650, during his second journey to Italy. According to tradition the pope, seeing it, exclaimed 'Troppo vero!' (too true!), but he rewarded the painter with a gold chain. The portrait never left the Pamphilj family: it still hangs in the family palace on the Via del Corso, now the Galleria Doria Pamphilj, in a small cabinet of its own beside Bernini's marble bust of the same pope.
More by Diego Velázquez
In this gallery
The Surrender of Breda
Las Meninas
Old Woman Frying Eggs
The Rokeby Venus (The Toilet of Venus)
The Spinners (The Fable of Arachne)
Portrait of Juan de Pareja