How accurate are the papal portraits, namely the ones which are painted onto the "Basilica of St Paul Outside The Walls"? And why does the art style seem so reminiscent of the renaissance, using depth, shadows etc, even during the early medieval period?

by Mr_Funnybone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes

Wikipedia has a list of all popes since Peter in 33 AD. For every single pope there is also a portrait accompanying it, which I find hard to believe are actually true to life considering some have been dead for 2000 years. Without a doubt since the basilica was built in the 4th century that the first 30 or so portraits are just artistic invention, but I'm wondering, are any portraits after this period really accurate? I'm talking about really the period from the 4th century to about the 16th-17th century, where there are a few portraits that are plausibly "Realistic/true to life". It seems to me that the portraits on the walls are of a more "realistic" style than what is commonly thought of when discussing medieval/pre-renaissance artwork. Something like this: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h5/h5_60.173.jpg is what I'm thinking of. Anyways, I did a little bit more digging and apparently it was Pope Leo the great in the 5th century who started the trend of papal portraits. http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_paolo/en/basilica/storia.htm So, the question remains for me, why are the portraits on the basilica painted in a comparatively more realistic style than what is depicted in most religious paintings. The portraits seem to have depth, and honestly look a lot more like actual people than https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/26/75/04/267504edd3ac56dd0d4c0af71aa6b7d4.jpg

Anyways here are some examples that best show this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes#/media/File:78-Donus.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes#/media/File:73-Theodore_I.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes#/media/File:88-Constantine.jpg

And finally my theory is that they were painted at a later date, but if anyone here actually knows then feel free to comment below.

bettinafairchild

There was a fire in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in 1823 and the portraits were destroyed. They were then repainted, but in a later style as many of the portraits had been destroyed and the faces had to be invented.