Group Portraits of Cardinal Bembo and his Friends in the Wake of Trent

Abstract

Despite being primarily famous as a poet and literary theorist, Pietro Bembo’s visual legacy is dominated by images of him as an aged cardinal. The majority of these images of Cardinal Bembo were produced posthumously, and several representations occur in group portraits including cardinals affiliated with Paul III’s programme of ecclesiastical reform; many of these individuals were Bembo’s closest friends at the papal court. Exploring the important place that Bembo assumed within the Roman Curia during his cardinalate, and his association with the group known as the spirituali, this essay will consider how cardinal portraiture could be used to articulate visually a particular agenda of church reform.