Are You Up to the Challenge?

"There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes."

Abraham Lincoln

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Some say Diego Velázquez’s representation of Pope Innocent X is the finest portrait ever made. Curiously, it came close to never being painted at all.

When Velázquez met the powerful pope during a trip to Rome in 1650, he offered to paint his portrait. As one of the most famous artists in Europe, Velázquez might have expected Innocent to jump at his offer.

Diego Velázquez, "Portrait of Pope Innocent X", ca. 1650, oil on canvas, 4.63 x 3.9 ft, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome.
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But the pope hesitated. He was notoriously ugly and more than a little self-conscious about his looks. It’s hard to blame him. People openly mocked Innocent’s appearance, describing him as "repugnant", and calling his face "the most deformed ever born among men."

Pope Innocent, who was wary of being remembered as the "ugliest pope ever," would only trust the most supremely skilled painter to memorialize his image. Velázquez painted a test portrait of his slave to prove he was up to the job.

That test portrait, Juan de Pareja, is a masterpiece in its own right and won the pope over.

Diego Velázquez, "Juan de Pareja", 1650, oil on canvas, 32 x 27.5 in., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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With his bulbous nose, big ears and ruddy cheeks, Velázquez’s portrait of Innocent is more menacing than ugly. Leaning forward in his chair, he cagily eyes Velázquez like a lion waiting to pounce.

The pope is shown clasping a cartellino, a small piece of paper bearing the artist's name, in his left hand. He seems ready to tear it to pieces at the first wrong brushstroke.

In the end, Innocent couldn't deny the painting’s accuracy. His dry reaction—"È troppo vero" ("It’s too true!")—has become nearly as famous as the portrait itself.