As the title suggests, Francis Bacon’s Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Innocent X (1953) was inspired by the 17th century portrait Pope Innocent X (1650) by Spanish painter Diego Velazquez. In fact, Bacon was fascinated with the figure of the Pope throughout the 1950s and and the early 1960s, painting around fifty portraits of the subject matter. One of the starting points for this series was Velazquez’s portrait: Bacon was transfixed with the painting keeping several reproductions in his studio. However, while visiting Rome in 1954, he chose not see the original painting at the Galleria Doria Pamphilj. Velazquez, who painted the Pope at the height of his political power, created a portrait that embodied his authority and status as a spiritual leader. Bacon’s Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Innocent X shatters this image with the depiction of the screaming Pope.

His papal portrait presents a critical perspective of traditional papal portraits, as well as a broader critique of Christianity. For Bacon, the Pope is a kind of tragic figure, that renounces all individuality and self-identity to uphold a public role of a stifling belief system. This system of oppression is the source of violence Bacon portrays in Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Innocent X. By painting vertical folds of color, he creates a unique pictorial space that gives the illusion of an isolated space or cage - a pictorial device known as ‘space frames’. Bacon’s use of ‘space frames’ relates to the work of his contemporary, Italian sculptor Alberto Giacometti. The ‘space-frame’ was a motif in Giacometti’s sculpture Cage (1930-31) and a framing device in his later paintings like Diego Seated (1948). The technique of distancing the figure was applied by Old Masters, for instance Titian in his Portrait of Cardinal Filippo Archinto (ca. 1558).

In Bacon’s case the ‘space frame’ can be a visual representation of psychological entrapment, which is also conveyed through the Pope’s chilling cry of horror. The screaming Pope can be linked to post existential angst and Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the ‘death of God’. Bacon, a staunch atheist, exposes the Pope as an empty symbol by visually deconstructing the powerful figure portrayed by Velazquez.

The disintegrated figure in Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Innocent X is traced to Bacon’s earlier painting Head VI (1949). This was the first time Bacon referenced Velazquez’s Pope Innocent X. The study of the head develops into a full portrait in Study After Velazquez’s Portrait of Innocent X. In both paintings color played an important role in transforming Velazquez’s dignified portrait painted in soft and muted tones. Bacon used a garish purple to replace the lush red of the Pope’s cape, and he heightened the color contrast with the translucent yellow and gold throne. The purple cape in particular is recurring in Bacon’s papal portraits, for example Pope I (1951) and Untitled (Pope) (c.1954). The glaring colors against the dark background heighten the sense of drama, and enhance the disturbing atmosphere evoked by Bacon’s portrait.