The Pope in Solemn Vestments, a Cardinal and Saint Peter's in the Vatican, 1842

This original antique lithograph, hand colored, comes from the Galleria Universale di Tutti i Popoli del Mondo (Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1842). In the upper image the Pope stands on a pink carpeted step patterned in gold, his right hand raised in blessing. He wears the triple crowned tiara, a white alb with lace and a gold cope worked with ornament, its red lining showing at the back. Beside him a cardinal in a red cape, red skullcap and long red robe with a train stands with one hand on his chest. The lower image is a view across Saint Peter's Square to the basilica and its dome, with the obelisk at the center, the colonnades, a fountain at left, tall palace buildings at right and small figures and riders in the square, framed at left by a column of the portico.

The top margin is lettered "Tom. IV", "ITALIA" and "Tav. 51". The captions read "Il Papa in vesti solenni" (The Pope in solemn vestments), "Cardinale" (Cardinal) and "Chiesa di S. Pietro in Vaticano" (Church of Saint Peter in the Vatican).

Saint Peter's Basilica was rebuilt from the sixteenth century, with the dome designed by Michelangelo. The Egyptian obelisk was raised in the square in 1586, and the colonnades that enclose it were designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the seventeenth century. The red dress of the cardinal and the tiara of the Pope are the long established marks of their offices.

A handsome sheet for a collection of Rome or of ecclesiastical subjects.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.