Portrait of Pope Julius II

By the time this portrait was painted, around 1511, Julius II had spent most of his papacy on horseback. Contemporaries called him il papa terribile, the fearsome pope, a man who led his own armies to win back the lands of the Church. That year he grew the white beard you see here, having sworn not to shave until the French were driven from Italy. Raphael showed him seated quietly in a corner rather than enthroned in majesty, an old man sunk in thought, looking down and away, rings on his fingers and his hands resting on the chair. No pope had been portrayed this privately before, and the format was copied for a century. This is one of several early versions of the composition. For a long time the Florence picture was taken to be the original, until in 1969 an X-ray of the version now in London revealed Raphael reworking the background beneath the paint, and scholarly opinion moved to London. Julius died early in 1513, about a year after he sat for it.