Hendrik Goltzius Man of Sorrows with Chalice 1614 oil on panel Princeton University Art Museum |
Johan Christian Dahl after Nicolai Abildgaard Académie 1811 drawing National Gallery of Norway, Oslo |
Louis Boullogne the Younger Académie ca. 1710 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Anonymous Italian Artist Standing Warrior ca. 1600 drawing National Gallery of Norway, Oslo |
Gaston Lachaise Man 1930-34 bronze Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia |
Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli Figure Studies before 1569 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
John Singer Sargent Gondolier, Venice 1912 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Louis Germain Académie ca. 1760 drawing Princeton University Art Museum |
Anonymous Italian Artist Figure Studies 17th century drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti) Seated Man ca. 1590 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Alphonse Legros Figure Study ca. 1880 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Anton Raphael Mengs Académie 1778 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Henry Moore Thirteen Standing Figures 1958 lithograph Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri |
Bernard Picart Académie 1720 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench Young Faun 1888 oil on panel Museo del Prado, Madrid |
Randolph Schwabe Académie ca. 1905 drawing Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
"The pope continued to pray in his chapel, "unable," wrote Cellini, "to believe that they would enter." The pope fled in haste. He had no sooner left with fourteen cardinals than the imperials entered the Vatican. It is easy to imagine how close he came to being captured or even killed. What happened was that Clement was able to steal into the long corridor on top of the fortified wall. Paolo Giovio relates how he covered the pontiff with his own purple bishop's cloak to prevent Clement from being recognized in his white garments. Cardinals, ambassadors, the Curia personnel, all poured into Castel Sant' Angelo. . . . This conquest may have been desired by many political figures, but none believed in its likelihood. The aura, the religious prestige, of the city seemed to everyone but Lutherans to protect it from destruction. Everyone was carried away far beyond normal expectations. The city did not have to endure a siege, but it did fall prey to sustained, atrocious pillage that was thorough yet disorganized, given the absence of a powerful commander. . . . The emperor, somewhat belatedly impressed by the news, saw the hand of God in that unexpected victory. What political action to follow it with was not clear. Charles's prolonged hesitation proved fatal to the city. The absurd situation of a pope encircled in that fortified mass of stone, familiar to the entire Christian world, by enemy troops dragged on indecisively. The Lutheran lansquenets agitated for his deposition."
– André Chastel, The Sack of Rome, 1527, translated by Beth Archer, 1983 (expanded from the A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1977, and published by Princeton University Press and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)