Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
A recent cleaning of the painting, scientific examinations of it, the publication of new letters related to it, and studies of the prophetic culture in which it was produced all call for a reevaluation of the traditional interpretations of Raphael's portrait Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de' Rossi. After a close analysis of the major iconographic details in the painting, the strengths and weaknesses of the various secular and religious interpretations of the painting are reviewed. That the painting is primarily religious in theme with prophetic and devotional overtones is argued as the most reasonable interpretation, given the iconographic details and context.
The author is deeply grateful to Kenneth Gouwens, Sheryl Reiss, Heinrich Pfeiffer, S.J., Frank A.C. Mantello, the late John Shearman, Marcia B. Hall, Barbara Lockhart, and the anonymous reviewers of RQ for their extraordinary patience, careful reading of this paper, and helpful comments, and for generously supplying me with materials I found difficult to locate. A grant from the Faculty Research Fund of the Catholic University of America underwrote the cost of the illustrations. The following abbreviations are used in this article: ASF = Archivio di Stato, Firenze; BAV = Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana; MaP = Fondo Mediceo avanti il Principato.
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