Paul III

(Alessandro Farnese; r. 1534-1549)

   Paul III was born in Canino in the province of Viterbo in 1468 and received a humanist education in Rome, Florence, and Pisa. He obtained the post of cardinal-deacon in 1493 from Pope Alexander VI whose mistress was Giulia Farnese, Paul III's sister. Paul himself had a mistress who bore him three sons and a daughter. Upon ascending the papal throne, he set up a humanist court composed of artists, writers, and scholars. He also hosted masquerades and feasts, and in 1536 restored the practice of celebrating carnival. His appointment of his two teenage grandsons to the cardinalate in 1534 provoked protests within the curia. Nepotistic practices aside, Paul was a hard worker. He recognized the need to address the spread of Protestantism and to enact church reform. To this end he convoked a general council, revitalized the sacred college, and set up a commission to examine the state of the Church that became the basis for the work carried out by the Council of Trent. He also encouraged the reform of religious orders and the formation of new ones, including the Theatines and Ursulines. He was the one to approve the formation of the Jesuit Order and to establish the Congregation of the Roman Inquisition. Paul was depicted on two occasions by Titian: in 1543 (Toledo, Cathedral Museum) and in 1546 with his grandsons Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma (Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte). Under Paul, Michelangelo painted the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel (1536-1541) and the frescoes in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican (1542-1550), this last built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in 1537-1540. Sangallo also built for Paul the Palazzo Farnese, Rome (c. 1513-c. 1589) while still a cardinal, and Michelangelo built the Piazza del Campidoglio (1538-1564) and began the construction of New St. Peter's (1546).