Portrait of Leo X

The Portrait of Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de' Rossi (c. 1518–19) at the Uffizi is Raphael's masterpiece of group portraiture and one of the most penetrating images of ecclesiastical power in European art. The Medici pope — fat, nearsighted, examining an illuminated manuscript — is surrounded by two cousins who would both become popes. The painting's extraordinary quality of physical and psychological observation, the rich surfaces of velvet and velum, and the compositional subtlety that places each figure in exact social relationship to the others represent the pinnacle of Renaissance portrait achievement. Leo's apparent shortsightedness — documented by the magnifying glass on the table — is treated as a natural human fact rather than a flaw to conceal.

Raphael achieves extraordinary effects of material richness through the velvet papal robes, polished brass bell, and illuminated book, while the three portraits are individually characterized with remarkable psychological acuity.