Lawrence Paintings
1769 - 1830 English painter
Pope Pius VII, 1819
Oil on canvas, 269 x 178 cm
Royal Collection, Windsor Portraits
Pope Pius VII has every reason to be called Lawrence's masterpiece and it was recognised as such during the artist's lifetime. Lawrence wrote on 25 June 1819, 'No picture that I have painted has been more popular with the friends of its subject, and the public . . . and, according to my scale of ability, I have executed my intention: having given him that expression of unaffected benevolence and worth, which lights up his countenance with a freshness and spirit, entirely free (except in the characteristic paleness of his complexion) from that appearance of illness and decay that he generally has when enduring the fatigue of his public functions.'
Pius VII is shown on the papal throne, or sedia gestatoria, on which he was carried in procession. His coat-of-arms with his motto PAX are visible on the finials of the throne. He holds a paper in his left hand marked Per/Anto. Canova, who was appointed Prefect of the Fine Arts in Rome by Pius VII and created Marchese d'lschia. In the background on the left is a view of the unfinished Braccio Nuovo, built to house some of the finest antiquities in the Vatican collections - the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoön and the Torso Belvedere are visible. The setting is, therefore, as important as the characterisation, but above all there is the sheer brilliance of Lawrence's sense of colour and brushwork, as, for example, in the depiction of the pope's hands or his slippers raised on the stool.
The significance of this portrait of Pius VII is only fully grasped if it is appreciated that Lawrence was working in a well-established tradition extending from the portraits of Julius II by Raphael (London, National Gallery), Paul III by Titian (Naples, Capodimonte) and Innocent X by Velázquez (Rome, Doria-Pamphili). Lawrence was not overwhelmed by these inevitable comparisons and his achievement is such that he can be accorded a prominent place alongside these outstanding portrait painters.
