{{Short description|Oil painting by Spanish painter Diego Velázquez}}{{About|the portrait by Diego Velázquez|text=For Francis Bacon's many portraits inspired by it, such as Study from Innocent X (1962), see List of paintings by Francis Bacon}}{{Infobox artwork | image_file = Retrato del Papa Inocencio X. Roma, by Diego Velázquez.jpg | title = Portrait of Innocent X | other_language_1 = es | other_title_1 = Retrato de Inocencio X | artist = Diego Velázquez | year = c. 1650 | medium = Oil on canvas | subject = Pope Innocent X | height_metric = 141 | width_metric = 119 | metric_unit = cm | imperial_unit = in | museum = Galleria Doria Pamphilj | city = Rome }}
'''''Portrait of Innocent X''''' is a c. 1650 oil on canvas painting by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, depicting Pope Innocent X, head of the Catholic Church from 1644 to 1655. Many artists and art critics consider it the finest portrait ever created.<ref>Vid. Ernest Gombrich, ''The History of Art'', Phaidon Press Limited, 1995, Chapter 19</ref> It is housed in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome. A smaller version is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and a study is on display at Apsley House in London.<ref>"[https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/pope-innocent-x-1650-144442 Pope Innocent X, 1650]. Art UK website.</ref>
The painting is noted for its realism as an unflinching portrait of a highly intelligent, shrewd, and aging man. He is dressed in linen vestments, and the quality of the work is evident in the rich reds of his upper clothing, head-dress, and the hanging curtains.
The painting was created during a trip by Velázquez to Italy. The pope, born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, was initially wary of sitting for Velázquez, but relented after he was shown reproductions of portraits by the artist. A contributing factor for this large advancement in the painter's career was that he had already depicted a number of members of Pamphilj's inner court. The pope, however, remained cautious, and the painting was initially displayed only to his immediate family, and was largely lost from public view through the 17th and 18th centuries.
Irish-British artist Francis Bacon notably used Velázquez's portrait as a reference for dozens of paintings from 1949 to 1971. In most of them, the pope is screaming or has a distorted appearance.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-05-07 |title=Francis Bacon's Visceral Portraits of Pope Innocent X |url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/francis-bacons-visceral-portraits-of-pope-innocent-x |access-date=2026-05-05 |website=Sothebys.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-01 |title=Francis Bacon's 'Screaming Pope' Embodied Postwar Anguish—Here Are 3 Surprising Facts About the Influential Painting |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/francis-bacon-head-royal-academy-2064391 |access-date=2026-05-05 |website=Artnet News}}</ref> These works most famously include ''Head VI'' (1949)<ref>{{Cite web |title=HEAD VI |url=https://geistmc.com/our-artists/francis-bacon/francis-bacon-notable-works/head-vi/ |access-date=2026-05-05 |website=Geist |language=en}}</ref> and ''Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X'' (1953).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Francis Bacon: The Papal Portraits of 1953 {{!}} Francis Bacon |url=https://www.francis-bacon.com/bacons-world/exhibitions/francis-bacon-papal-portraits-1953 |access-date=2026-05-05 |website=www.francis-bacon.com}}</ref>
==History== The portrait was painted during Velázquez's second voyage to Italy, between 1649 and 1651. The subject's vestments are of light linen, suggesting that the picture was probably painted during summer, most likely in 1650. Velázquez included his signature on the paper in the pope's hands, but the date is not readable. There are two versions of the story of how Velázquez came to paint the portrait. According to one of these, while visiting Rome, Velázquez, already a renowned painter, was granted an audience with Pope Innocent X. He offered to paint a portrait of the pope, but Innocent X mistrusted Velázquez's fame, and asked for proof of Veláquez's skills. It would have been then that Velázquez painted the portrait of his servant Juan de Pareja. Once Innocent saw that portrait, he agreed to sit for the artist.<ref>Gombrich, E. "The Story of Art." London: Phaidon, 1950</ref> left|thumb|upright=1.0|A copy made by Velázquez's circle, currently hanging at the National Gallery of Art, Washington Apparently, when the pope saw the finished portrait, he exclaimed: ''"È troppo vero! È troppo vero!"'' (''"It's too true! It's too true!"''), though he did not deny the extraordinary quality of the portrait.<ref>Kauffmann, C.M. "[https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/content/imported-docs/a-e/apsleyhouseartcatalogue.pdf Catalogue of Paintings in the Wellington Museum, Apsley House]". English Heritage, 2009. P. 308. {{ISBN|978-1-9034-7078-7}}</ref> Experts doubt the veracity of this story, and argue that the pope allowed Velázquez to paint him because he had already painted with great success other people from the inner papal court, including the pope's barber.
The portrait was kept at private display by Innocent's family, the Pamphilj, who would display it in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery where it remains to this day. For much of the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a relatively unknown work, familiar only to a few connoisseurs who regarded it to be one of the finest portraits ever. French historian Hippolyte Taine considered the portrait as "the masterpiece amongst all portraits" and said "once it has been seen, it is impossible to forget".<ref>Bosky, Bernadette Lynn, "Hippolyte-Adolphe Taine", Cyclopedia of World Authors</ref>
The art dealer René Gimpel noted in his diary in 1923 "Morgan would have offered a million dollars for it. Velázquez was faced with a ruddy Italian, and the artist, accustomed to the pale complexions of his country, unhesitatingly steeped his brush in red the color of wine and brought the bon vivant devastatingly to life.... That face is a whirlpool of flesh, and blood, and life; the eyes are searching."<ref>Gimpel, (John Roseberg, tr.)''Diary of an Art Dealer'' 1966:190.</ref>
==Influence== The 20th century artist Francis Bacon painted a series of distorted variants, often known as the "Screaming Popes", which total more than forty-five known variants executed during the 1950s and early 1960s.<ref>Schmied, 17</ref> The picture was described by Gilles Deleuze as an example of creative re-interpretation of the classical. Bacon avoided seeing the original, but the painting remained the single greatest influence on him; its presence can be seen in many of his best works from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. In Bacon's 1953 version ''Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X'' (1953), the pope is shown screaming yet his voice is "silenced" by the enclosing drapes and dark rich colors which have been said to create a grotesque and nightmarish tone.<ref>Schmied, 20</ref> The pleated curtains of the backdrop are rendered transparent and appear to fall through the representation of the pope's face.<ref>Peppiatt, 148</ref>
At least a dozen works by Peruvian painter Herman Braun-Vega refer to the ''Portrait of Innocent X''. These appropriations are generally a way of casting a critical eye on spiritual leaders and Churches.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Henry |first=Pierre |date=1989-11-08 |title=De la peinture qui se tait à la peinture qui parle, Rétrospective d'Herman Braun-Vega (1950-89) |url=https://braunvega.com/picture?/532/category/press#neutronbomb |journal=La Voix du Nord |language=fr |pages=18 |quote=Cette peinture inspirée de Vélasquez est le type même d'art critique assumé par Braun-Vega. Elle illustre une mise en accusation des chefs spirituels et des Eglises concernant les périls physiques et moraux qui pèsent sur la planète.}}</ref> Among the most important of these works are ''Hello Mister Bacon'' (1981),<ref>{{Cite web |last=Braun-Vega |first=Herman |date=1981 |title=Hello Mister Bacon (Velazquez) |url=https://braunvega.com/picture?/285/category/10-1982_1978 |access-date=2025-03-13 |website=braunvega.com |type=Acrylic on canvas, 195 x 130 cm}}</ref> which puts into abyme Bacon's ''Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X'', ''I love the neutron bomb'' (1982),<ref name=":0" /> ''La laïque'' (1984),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rivais |first=Yak |url=https://braunvega.com/picture?/2390/category/451-l_art_hop_l_humour_noir |title=L'art H.O.P. l'humour noir ! : L'humour noir dans les arts plastiques |publisher=Eden |year=2004 |isbn=978-2-913-24594-5 |pages=81 |language=fr |quote=Le pape de Velasquez lit le journal « la Laïque » devant des jeunes bouchers et un étal de viande.}}</ref> the right panel of the triptych ''Dar al Cesar'' (1992),<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://braunvega.com/index?/category/317-catalogue |title=Herman Braun Vega |publisher=Ministerio de Cultura, Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Archivos |year=1992 |isbn=84-7483-874-6 |location=Madrid |pages=19 |language=es |type=Madrid retrospective exhibition catalogue}}</ref> ''Let the little children come to me'' (2003),<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Samper |first1=Edggar |url=https://braunvega.com/picture?/2135/category/407-rencontres_et_construction_des_identites |title=Rencontres et construction des identités, Espagne et Amérique latine |last2=Carvallo |first2=Fernando |publisher=Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne |isbn=978-2-862-72338-9 |editor-last=Soubeyroux |editor-first=Jacques |pages=265 |language=fr}}</ref> ''El poder se nutre de dogmas'' (2006),<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Guerrero Zegarra |first=María Alexandra |date=2021-06-30 |title=El poder se nutre de dogmas. El apropiacionismo en la obra de Herman Braun‑Vega |url=http://revista.letras.unmsm.edu.pe/index.php/le/article/view/690 |journal=LETRAS, revista de investigación científica de la Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos |language=es |volume=92 |issue=135 |pages=177–190 |doi=10.30920/letras.92.135.13 |issn=0378-4878 |eissn=2071-5072|doi-access=free }}</ref> ''L'argent des Andes'' (2010).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://braunvega.com/index?/category/saopaulo2010 |title=Braun‑Vega: memories and lineage (1984-2010) |publisher=Fundação Memorial da América Latina |year=2010 |location=São Paulo |pages=58 |type=Catalog of the exhibition at the Latin American Memorial, Marta Traba Gallery}}</ref>
A reversed form of the portrait features on the cover of occult rock band Ghost's 2018 album ''Prequelle''.
==See also== * List of works by Diego Velázquez
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== {{commons category}} * Peppiatt, Michael. ''Anatomy of an Enigma''. Westview Press, 1996. {{ISBN|0-8133-3520-5}} * Schmied, Wieland. ''Francis Bacon: Commitment and Conflict''. Munich: Prestel, 1996. {{ISBN|3-7913-1664-8}}
{{Diego Velázquez}} {{Authority control (arts)|country=ES}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of Innocent X}} Category:1650 paintings Category:Portraits by Diego Velázquez Innocent X Category:Collection of the Galleria Doria Pamphilj Category:Cultural depictions of Pope Innocent X Category:Oil paintings on canvas