Portrait of Pope Innocent X

Pope Innocent X glares from his throne in red and white, his sharp eyes wary, his jaw set, every wrinkle and shrewd suspicion caught - a portrait so unsparingly true that the pope himself reportedly muttered it was 'troppo vero,' too real. Velazquez painted it in Rome with dazzling economy, the silks shimmering, the gaze unforgettable. Now in the Doria Pamphilj gallery, it is widely held among the greatest portraits ever made, and three centuries later it haunted Francis Bacon into his series of screaming popes.