Le Cardinal de Montalte couvant la papauté

Curatorial commentary

• The 65-year old Cardinal de Montalto was alleged to have entered the papal conclave of 1585 on crutches, feigning infirmity, so as to secure votes from cardinals thinking he would not live long. On his election as pope Sixtus V, he was said to have cast the crutches aside, as if cured. This is one of several drawings in the “Livre de Caricatures” – including the image on the page opposite (675.109) - where disabilities are faked in order to secure personal advantage. Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin's cynicism about miracles is also suggested by drawings at 675.22, 675.100 and 675.326, which relate to the Saint-Médard Jansenist convulsionaries.
• The devious nature of Montalto’s act is also suggested in the inscription, where the artist puns on the word “couver”, which can mean to hatch an egg, or else a plan. This possibly explains why the cardinal is depicted with one raptor’s claw.
• This drawing is in Style A, attributed to the principal author of the “Livre de Caricatures”, Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin. Style A displays a childish and naïve aesthetic and sometimes subject matter, and is characterised by crispness of execution, clear outlines and smooth application of colour. It is especially dominant in the early part of the book, from 675.3 to around 675.160. The opening inscription (675.1a) claims that the book was acquired from booksellers on the Paris quays in 1740 already containing drawings in another hand. The inscription states that ‘my friends put captions [underneath the drawings] and got me to continue this miscellany of follies’ (“mes amis y mirent des légendes et m’engagerent à continuer ce melange de folies”). This may be a tall story, explicable by Charles-Germain’s reluctance to admit authorship of the work. Charles-Germain was a versatile artist, and the possibility that he was responsible for the entire process in these initial drawings cannot be ruled out. In the drawings in the book not in Style A, Charles-Germain first made graphite sketches in much the same way. However it is possible that on the sections of the book dominated by Style A, Charles-Germain confined himself to working up existing graphite drawings, as well as adding details and also, with his friends’ assistance as he describes, the captions.

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

187 x 132

Inscriptions

Le Cardinal de Montalte couvant la papauté
Inscription
Inscribed by Charles-Gemain de Saint-Aubin, below image, in ink

108
Pagination
Top left corner, in ink

Translation of inscription

Cardinal Montalto brooding for [or plotting for] the papacy

Language

French

Part of

• Livre de Caricatures tant bonnes que mauvaises. 675.1-389

Collection

• Waddesdon (National Trust)
• Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957

Related literature

• Erwin Pokorny, Bosch's Cripples and Drawings by his Imitators, Master Drawings, xli, 2003, 293-304
• Tom Nichols; The Vagabond Image: Depictions of False Beggars in Northern Art of the Sixteenth Century; Tom Nichols, Others and Outcasts in Early Modern Europe: Picturing the Social Margins, Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing, 2007; 37-60

Related files

• • http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14033a.htm [Catholic Encyclopedia, see entry, 'Sixtus V']
  • http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14033a.htm [Catholic Encyclopedia, see entry, 'Sixtus V']

Subject person and role

• Pope Sixtus V, Alluded to in image
• Pope Sixtus V, Named in text

Person as Subject

• Sixtus V, Pope (b.1520, d.1590)

Research keywords

• Christian Culture
• Politics
• Disability

Subjects

• Animals/Birds
• Figures/Male
• Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Patch of Ground
• Objects/Medical/Crutch
• Work & Occupations/Religious Vocations/Cardinal
• Work & Occupations/Religious Vocations/Pope
• Everyday Life/Ill Health
• History/Historical Figure
• Figures/Notable Body Parts/Foot
• Everyday Life/Gaming & Sport/Word Games