Guglielmo della Porta (Porlezza? 1515 - Rome 1577) Bust of Pope Paul III 1546 A masterpiece of portraiture, the Pope is shown as an elderly man, wearing a cope decorated with plaquettes portraying the Crossing of the Red Sea, Moses receiving the Tablets of the Ten Commandments and Allegories. The drapery is fastened with a brooch decorated laterally by two winged chimeras and grotesque masks, a sophisticated piece of jewellery adapted from ancient designs. During his lengthy stay in the Farnese household, Guglielmo della Porta was one of the leading exponents of the self-celebratory policy of the Pope and his family. He was also the restorer of ancient works in the Farnese collection: he added the legs, which had been lost, to the famous work The Farnese Hercules. [room 2]
THE FARNESE GALLERY  45