Portrait of Clement IX

Giulio Rospigliosi came to the papal throne with an unusual past. As a young cleric in the circle of the Barberini, the family of Pope Urban VIII, he wrote opera librettos for their theatre, among them Sant'Alessio, staged in 1632, and the comedy Chi soffre speri. Elected in 1667 as Clement IX, he reigned for barely two and a half years. Carlo Maratta signed and dated this portrait in 1669, the year the pope died, in December. The pose is a deliberate quotation. The pope sits on his throne turned three-quarters to the viewer, as Velázquez had painted Innocent X in 1650, a portrait that hangs today in the Doria Pamphilj gallery in Rome. The sittings were remembered for a rare courtesy. The pope let the painter stay seated while he worked, so that tiredness would not get in the way.