On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P07858
- Author
- Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y (Spanish)
- Title
- Portrait of the man called “The Pope's Barber”
- Chronology
- Ca. 1650
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 50,5 cm x 47 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- COMPRA
- Procedence
- Acquisition 2003
A study of the style and formal characteristics of this painting make it possible to date it around the time that Velasquez made his second trip to Italy. Thus, this is the only work of Velasquez in the Prado Museum collection from that time. The model's hairstyle, mustache and goatee are in keeping with the fashion at the court of Pope Innocence X, and the composition is more related to portraits by artists working in Italy in the central decades of that century, such as Bernini, than with earlier works by Velasquez. Moreover, the expressive and communicative emphases in this work are characteristic of other portraits Velasquez made in Rome. Among the various hypotheses as to the identity of the model, the most widely accepted is that he was Michelangelo Augurio, the Pope's barber, who was known to have posed for Velasquez. Nevertheless, this is not a certainty.
Location on the map
