Located in the city’s museum is this sculpture of Pope Pius VI (1717-1799). He looks quite serene here, which I think is something that Popes do tend to work on. He was in his Papal role for 24 years and I think it’s fair to say that they were quite stressful years for him.
He was born Giovanni Angelo Braschi and he became Pope on 15 February 1775. This proved problematic for him, as the French Revolution kicked off in 1789 during his period in charge and losing the Catholic Church in France was sub-optimal to say the least. The privileges of the church were stripped away, assets stolen and there wasn’t much that the Pope could do other than to complain quite a lot. At this point, the future of the Catholic Church was in serious danger, there was perhaps nothing inevitable about its survival, or at least, not losing its independence.
As if this whole French situation wasn’t bad enough, the French military marched into Rome and exiled Pius. Napoleon wanted to bring back the Catholic church at this point and stealing the Pope was quite handy in that arrangement, but Pius was to die in Valence, located in south-eastern France. His successor, Pope Pius VII, was appointed six months later and he ultimately also ended up being exiled in France.
Pius VI was one of few Popes who died outside of Rome and when he was allowed to actually live in the Vatican he made improvements to the museums and galleries there. Not only did he try and add some culture to the Vatican, but he also oversaw early excavations in Herculaneum and Pompeii. He also oversaw the building of the rather lovely Pio-Clementine Museum and did something of an excellent job of improving the Vatican Gardens. Unfortunately, the Swiss Guard struggled somewhat at this time, so perhaps he might have been better to deal with his armies rather than his gardens, but there we go…..
Back to the sculpture in question, it dates from around 1782, although it’s not known who created it. This would have been something of a halcyon period for the Pope, which is perhaps why he doesn’t yet look entirely stressed.