Portrait of Pope Clement XIII Rezzonico

This second portrait of Pope Clement XIII Rezzonico — now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna — was painted in 1758, the year of the pope's election, and represents an early version of the official likeness that Mengs would refine across multiple versions. Bologna, as one of the major cities of the Papal States, had an obvious institutional interest in possessing an authorised portrait of the reigning pontiff. The existence of multiple Clement XIII portraits by Mengs across different Italian collections (Bologna, Venice, New Orleans) reflects standard practice in papal portraiture: a master version was produced from life, and authorised copies or variants were distributed to institutions and individuals requiring a papal likeness for devotional, diplomatic, or institutional purposes. Mengs's technical facility and his position as the pre-eminent portrait painter working in Rome made him the natural choice for this standardised official imagery.

The version in Bologna likely represents one of the earlier iterations of the official portrait type, before the image was further refined. Mengs's handling of white vestments — technically challenging — uses subtle cool tones in the shadows to model volume without losing the luminous quality of papal white.