Portrait of Pope Paul III with cardinal Reginald Pole

Perino del Vaga's Portrait of Pope Paul III with Cardinal Reginald Pole, painted in 1538 on panel and now in Santa Francesca Romana in Rome, depicts one of the most significant pairings of mid-sixteenth-century Catholic leadership. Paul III (Alessandro Farnese, pope 1534–1549) was the pope who convened the Council of Trent and presided over the formal launch of the Counter-Reformation. Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500–1558), the English Cardinal who was nearly elected pope in 1549 and later became Archbishop of Canterbury under Mary I, was among the most distinguished representatives of Catholic humanism — a reformer who attempted a middle path between doctrinal rigidity and Protestant innovation. Their pairing in a single portrait image in 1538 represents a significant moment in Counter-Reformation politics and church leadership.

The double portrait format required Perino to balance two figures of different hierarchical rank — the pope as supreme authority and the cardinal as distinguished subordinate — while maintaining compositional unity. The panel support allows for the careful surface differentiation between the pope's white soutane and gold-embroidered vestments and Pole's cardinal red, creating a dialogue of authority through contrasting sacred dress.