Portrait of Pope Clement IX

This second portrait of Pope Clement IX in Maratta's catalogue — held at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels — was executed much later than the Vatican version, around 1691, well after the pope's death in 1669. Posthumous portraits based on earlier sittings were common in Baroque Rome, produced for families, religious orders, or institutions that wished to commemorate a significant papal reign. Clement IX had been a remarkable cultural figure, and his memory remained meaningful to patrons associated with his pontificate. Maratta would have worked from his earlier portrait or from drawings to produce this version, which accounts for minor compositional differences between the two. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels holds a notable collection of Italian Baroque paintings assembled through the Habsburg Netherlands and later royal collections, and this portrait entered Belgian public holdings through that complex institutional history.

As a posthumous replica or variant of an earlier sitting, this portrait demonstrates Maratta's practiced facility in repeating compositions without mechanical copying. Subtle differences in scale, background, or accessory detail between versions were standard practice in Baroque workshops. The white vestments and red accents of papal dress are handled with the confidence of an artist who had painted this subject before.