Portrait of Pope Innocent X Pamphili (designed 1647–48; cast 1650–1700): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Pope Innocent X Pamphili (designed 1647–48; cast 1650–1700) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Alessandro Algardi (Italian, 1598–1654).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Innocent X (Giovanni Battista Pamphili) was pope from 1644 until his death in 1655. Although he was not very interested in the visual arts, he followed tradition and gave several papal commissions for artistic projects. Algardi was the sculptor most frequently called upon by Innocent X. This sensitive portrait captures many details of the pope's costume as well as his intelligent, quiet face.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Pope Innocent X Pamphili
• Date: designed 1647–48; cast 1650–1700
• Creator attribution: Alessandro Algardi (Italian, 1598–1654)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 97 x 81 x 29 cm (38 3/16 x 31 7/8 x 11 7/16 in.); Base: 23.5 x 27.1 cm (9 1/4 x 10 11/16 in.); without base: 78.1 x 81.6 cm (30 3/4 x 32 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1957.496

A detail from the museum

The pope's stole features Pamphili family emblems: fleur-de-lis and doves encircled by olive leaves.

Collection credit

Gift of Rosenberg and Stiebel, Inc., in honor of William Mathewson Milliken, Director 1930-1958

Further reading listed by the museum

• Honour, Hugh. "17th Century Art in Europe." The Connoisseur CXXXIX, no. 559 (January 1957): 34–5.
• Milliken, William M. “Early Byzantine Silver.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 45, no. 3 (1958).
• "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." The Art Quarterly XXI, no. 1 (Spring 1958): 82–100.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.