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2025-03-11T17:46:32Z

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{{Short description|Painting by Jacques-Louis David}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox Artwork
| image_file = Jacques-Louis_David_018.jpg
| title = Portrait of Pope Pius VII
| artist = [[Jacques-Louis David]]
| year = 1805
| type = oil on wood
| height_metric = 86
| width_metric = 71
| metric_unit = cm
| imperial_unit = in
| museum = [[Louvre]]
| city = [[Paris]], France
}}
The '''''Portrait of Pope Pius VII''''' is an 1805 portrait of [[Pope Pius VII]] by the French painter [[Jacques-Louis David]] to thank the pope for assisting at the coronation of [[Napoleon I of France]]. Pope Pius appears in David's ''[[The Coronation of Napoleon]]'', depicted as blessing the emperor, when in fact he was merely a spectator, assisting at the ceremony with a resigned expression throughout.

== History ==
The painting seems to have been commissioned by Count [[Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu|Charles Fleurieu]], [[Quartermaster General]] for the French emperor, though no written mention of a commission survives. It was painted at the [[Tuileries]] around the end of February 1805 from life. David seems to have been won over and impressed by Pius's simplicity and deep humanity, choosing to show him in an introspective pose rather than as the most powerful [[prelate]] in Christianity. He was paid 10,000 [[French franc|francs]] for his work and the portrait was exhibited in the Gallery of the French Senate at its seat in the [[Château du Luxembourg]] and then assigned to the Musée Napoléon (now known as the [[Louvre]]). It was displayed again at the Château in 1824 before being returned to its permanent home in the Louvre in 1827.

David produced three copies of the portrait, assisted by one of his students (probably [[Georges Rouget]]), two of which were commissioned by Napoleon for the Musée de Fontainebleau and for the [[Versailles Palace|Musée du Château de Versailles]]. David held onto the third copy and took it with him during his exile to [[Brussels]], and which is now lost.

== Description ==
Vertical in format and with a brown background, the painting shows Pius three-quarter-length seated on a red velvet chair embroidered in gold. He has a peaceful expression and wears a white [[zucchetto]], a white [[rochet]] or tunic (of which only the sleeves can be seen), a red velvet [[pelerine]]-type [[mozzetta|camail]] with ermine cuffs and a red [[stole (vestment)|stole]] with gold embroidery. Pius's arms rest on the chair's arms and his right hand holds a paper on which is written in Latin ''Pio VII Bonarium Artium Patron'' (''Pius VII, Patron of the Fine Arts''). The painting is signed top left with LUD. DAVID PARISIIS 1805.

Some contemporary critics disliked the severe cropping of the picture, who thought it made the pope seem cramped.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bordes |first1=Philippe |title=Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile |date=2005 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, Connecticut |isbn=0-300-10447-2 |pages=140–141 |url=https://archive.org/details/jacqueslouisdavi0000bord/ |access-date=3 February 2024}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of paintings by Jacques-Louis David]]
* ''[[Portrait of Pope Pius VII (Lawrence)|Portrait of Pope Pius VII]]'', an 1819 painting by [[Thomas Lawrence]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* ''[https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010065727 Portrait of Pope Pius VII]'' by Jacques-Louis David at the [[Louvre]] website.

{{Jacques-Louis David}}
{{ACArt}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait Of Pope Pius Vii}}
[[Category:Portraits of popes|Pius VII]]
[[Category:1805 paintings]]
[[Category:Portraits by Jacques-Louis David|Pius VII]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Louvre by French artists]]
[[Category:Portrait paintings in the Louvre|Pius VII]]
[[Category:19th-century portraits|Pius VII]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Pope Pius VII]]

[[Category:Pope Pius VII]]

Portrait of Pope Pius VII - Revision history

imported>Lord Cornwallis: /* See also */