The Government of Pope Benedict XIV

Sebastiano Conca 1680 - 1764

Summary

This allegorical scene, framed with Rococo scrolls and garlands, probably represents the good government of Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758). The papacy is represented by Religion in the centre, holding the papal keys and sceptre, her hand resting on a portrait of the Pope (based on Subleyras's Portrait of Pope Benedict XIV, 1741), above which a putto holds the papal tiara. A figure holding the sword of Justice and an olive branch of Peace rests her right arm on another portrait, possibly of a Cardinal. Since the subject wears blue, this could have been a member of the Silvestrine Congregation, whose cardinals wore blue instead of the more usual scarlet. On the left are Prudence, holding a mirror and a snake, and another figure with a book and caduceus (a winged staff, entwined with serpents, which was associated with Mercury and was a symbol of commerce). This oil sketch, together with its pendant in the collection of Manchester Art Gallery (inv. 1966.297), were probably designs for painted panels, either overdoors (sopraporti) or sections of a frieze. Conca was one of the most successful painters in Rome in the first half of the 18th century. He received numerous important royal and religious commissions and his smaller easel works were collected across Europe. Pompeo Batoni, Corrado Giaquinto and Anton Raphael Mengs were outstanding pupils of his famous Accademia del Nudo in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Conca himself was indebted to his own teacher in Rome, Carlo Maratti (1625-1713), who was the last major artist there to work in the classical tradition that began with Raphael. Stylistically, the present work combines elements of late Baroque grandeur and theatre that were standard in grand decorative schemes (here, the fluid complex of figures in an ornate faux frame) with a classicising symmetry and sense of proportion.