The original of this painting constitutes one of the most celebrated examples of the Doria Pamphilj collection. The portrait’s subject, Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, was Pope under the name Innocent X from 1644 to 1655. He is portrayed without any idealization, putting his coarser features in evidence for the spectator. The figure cast by Innocent X was that of a  powerful and resentful pope, who despite this was also a lover of the fine arts and responsible for the  renovation of the Piazza Navona, which would subsequently become his family’s mansion. The importance of the painting we include in this section is rooted in equal parts in the celebration of religious power and the fact that this Pope’s power, united with Velázquez’s fame, was the reason this work was so influential and so often copied, in so doing proving the power of art.