The Papessa at auction at Sotheby's: Velázquez's portrait of Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj for sale

Tomorrow, July 3, 2019, one of the most interesting portraits of the seventeenth century, that of Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj (Viterbo, 1591 - San Martino al Cimino, 1657) executed by Diego Velázquez (Seville, 1599 - Madrid, 1660), will be auctioned at Sotheby ’s: Provincially born but highly ambitious, “donna Olimpia” entered Roman high society from a young age, marrying, at 21, Pamphilio Pamphilj, 30 years her senior but a member of one of the most powerful families in Rome.

Through marriage, Olimpia Maildalchini became related to the future Pope Innocent X (born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, Pamphilio’s younger brother). Bound to her brother-in-law to the point of fostering various slanders (including the very resistant one that she had become the pope’s mistress), Olimpia gained more and more power, becoming one of the most influential figures in papal Rome, so much so that she was nicknamed “the Papess” (according to tradition, the nickname was derived from a phrase uttered by Cardinal Alessandro Bichi after the 1644 conclave that brought Innocent X to the throne of Peter: “gentlemen, we have just elected a papess”). Olympia, in particular, took steps to include figures close to the Pamphilj family in key roles in the papacy, was a participant in Innocent X’s decisions (so much so that for many, in fact, she would have been behind the pope’s measures, able to subjugate him), and did not mind bribing and committing malfeasance to satisfy her greed that has become legendary. After the demise of Innocent X and the election to the papal throne of Fabio Chigi as Pope Alexander VII, who had a reputation for incorruptibility, Donna Olimpia was exiled from Rome following an investigation into her corrupt activities, and never returned.

Sotheby’s presents donna Olimpia as a true “rock star” of the Baroque: “women of her time came from all over Catholic Europe to see her come out of her palace and greet her when her carriage proceeded. They could not believe that a woman of modest origins had risen to such heights of power in a world ruled by men,” the London auction house specifies. However, Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj is also remembered for some good deeds: in particular, she was close to women of humble circumstances and gave substantial donations to nuns and prostitutes. In addition, she was passionate about art and supported various artists, musicians, and playwrights. To her, for example, we owe Bernini’s Fountain of Rivers in Piazza Navona: according to tradition it was Olimpia who convinced the pope to commission the great sculptor.

The portrait of Donna Olimpia was executed in 1650 by Diego Velázquez: for centuries there was no trace of it, so much so that for a long time it was thought to have been destroyed (the last document records it in 1724). Re-emerging in the 1980s as an anonymous Dutch school, it arrived at Sotheby’s with this attribution, which had extensive analysis done on the work, and experts have shown agreement that it is Velázquez’s lost work (in fact, there are inscriptions and archival numbers on the back of the painting that allow it to be identified unequivocally). The painting has an estimate of between 2.3 and 3.5 million euros, and now there are thoughts about where it might end up: perhaps in an Italian museum, if the state decides to participate.

The Papessa at auction at Sotheby's: Velázquez's portrait of Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj for sale

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