Portrait of Pope Julius II

Raphael's original is thought to date from 1511, a bad year for Pope Julius II. He had been seriously ill, and the French had just taken Bologna from him. The face is old and deeply lined, yet one ringed hand still grips the arm of the chair, whose golden finials are acorns, the emblem of his family, the della Rovere. This canvas is a copy, made in Rome by an unknown painter in the second half of the 16th century. The original panel, now in the National Gallery in London, once belonged to the Borghese too. Cardinal Scipione Borghese bought it in 1608 with an entire collection, and the family kept it until the late 18th century. This copy only appears in their records in 1833. Its white brushstrokes on the red velvet cape, sharpening the sheen, are not in Raphael's panel.