Portrait of Pope Julius III del Monte

The engraving shows Julius III del Monte, the Pope who called the Council back to Trento in 1551, after it had been temporarily transferred to Bologna (1547) and after the stop to the proceedings decreed in 1549 by his predecessor, Paul III. The pontiff is wearing the ‘mozzetta’, a small hooded cape closed in by buttons, and the ‘camauro’, a red velvet cap rimmed with ermine for the winter, and of red satin for the summer. A scroll mentions the Arezzo-born Pietro Camaiani, an agent of the Duke of Florence at the Council, friend of Angelo Massarelli and a protégé of Julius III. The Pope had already met Camaiani during his cardinalate and subsequently assigned him various political missions.