Portrait Of Cardinal Decio Azzolino (1623-1689)

Roman school of the first half of the XVIII century

Portrait of Cardinal Decio Azzolino (1623-1689)

Oil on copper oval, cm 7 x 5,5

In carved and gilded wooden frame, cm 16 x 11

Fourteenth son of Pompeo Azzolini and Giulia Ruffo, Decius was from the noble family Fermana. His uncle, Cardinal Decio Azzolino the Elder, was a particularly powerful figure in the ecclesiastical hierarchies of the time. The young Decius studied at the seminary of Ripatransone and then graduated from the University of Fermo. Both his father and uncle had important posts at the Secretariat of State: for this reason too, his rise was particularly rapid. He went to Rome where he was in the company of Cardinal Giovanni Panciroli, with whom he was conclavista in the conclave of 1644. At the age of just 21, in 1644 he held the prestigious position of secretary of the figure and ten years later, in 1654, he was elevated to the purple cardinal, assuming fortunate positions until the Secretariat of State in 1667.

Patron of artists and writers, he was a friend and confidant of Queen Christina of Sweden to whom he dedicated the construction of the beautiful Hall of the globe, founding nucleus of the Library of Fermo, his hometown. The Cardinal died in Rome on 8 June 1689 and was buried in the tomb of the Oratorian Fathers in the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella, in the heart of the city.

In this portrait, the young cardinal Azzolino is represented by three-quarters. The determined and shrewd gaze is boldly directed towards the spectator. The bright tones of the incarnate and the red of the cardinal’s robes contrast with the neutral background. The small oval copper takes the models and crismi of the Roman portraiture of the time: in particular, the anonymous artist who created it may have been inspired by the famous model provided by Decio Azzolino’s portrait of the Flemish artist active between Rome and Milan Jacob Ferdinand Voet (Antwerp, 1639 - Paris, 1689).Voet was one of the greatest specialists in European portraiture of the Grand Siècle, in the age of Louis XIV, between the pontificates Chigi and Odescalchi, dominating the genre of portraiture for the great quantity of commissions obtained from the great aristocracy, especially Italian, for over 30 years, from the 1960s to the 1780s. His are the official portraits of Christina of Sweden, of the princes Chigi, Colonna, Odescalchi, Rospigliosi, of the Lombard and Savoy nobility, of all the cardinals, but also of Spanish and Eastern European ambassadors. He was among the first to also paint portraits of British nobles on their Grand Tour trips to Italy. He was active in many cities: in Rome between 1663 and 1679, in Milan in 1680, in Florence in 1681, in Turin between 1682 and 1684, from which he returned to Antwerp in 1684. Between 1686 and 1689 he made a journey to Paris where he was court painter of Louis XIV and died in 1689. Among the masterpieces of the Flemish artist, in addition to the already mentioned portrait of Cardinal Decio Azzolino (Berlin, Staatliche Museum), we recall the portraits of Cardinal Flavio Chigi (Ariccia, Palazzo Chigi), of Cardinal Giulio Spinola (Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts), by Cardinal Carlo Cerri (London, National Gallery), by Buonamente Augustini (Forlì, Pinacoteca Civica), by Cristina of Sweden, by two gentlemen in oriental robes (Racconigi, Castello), by Maria Mancini who reads the fate to her sister Ortensia (Windsor Castle, Royal Collection).