Allegory of the Papacy of Clement XI

Description In this allegory, various symbolic motifs are brought together to express Clement XI's papacy (r. 1700-1721) as an abstract concept. The standing woman at center wearing the papal tiara is holding her cape in a protective manner over a little temple supported by angels. She may by an allegory of Religion protecting the Roman Church. To the base, on which she stands like a column, are chained different agonized figures symbolizing vices, an allusion to Protestants and Muslims. Above, Fame blows her horn while pointing to a portrait of the pontiff. The allegory as a whole is a portrait or a mirror of the pope and his virtues.

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1881 catalogue: no. 96, as Tiepolo; 1897 catalogue: no. 355, as Sebastiano Ricci]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902