Portrait of a Pope

Celebrating the power of the papacy, Pope Nicholas III (r. 1277–1280) sponsored a thorough redecoration of Rome’s ancient basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls (the burial place of St. Paul). In the space above each of the columns running down the nave, he had his artists paint portraits of the popes, linking all to one another and ultimately to St. Peter (whose portrait was nearest the altar). In this image of Anacletus (r. c. 79–c. 91), the artist asserted the pope’s gravity, solemnity, and otherworldliness. Anacletus wears a pallium, a white scarf symbolizing papal power, even though the pallium did not exist in the first century. (Nimatallah / Art Resource, NY.)