Camillo Massimo (20 July 1620 – 12 September 1677) was an Italian

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

in 17th century Rome, best remembered as a major patron of

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

artists such as

Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...

Lorrain Lorrain may refer to: * Claude Lorrain (1600–82), a 17th-century French artist of the baroque style * Lorrain language, a Romance dialect spoken in Lorraine region in France and Gaume region in Belgium See also * Lorain (disambiguation) * Lor ...

, Velázquez, Duquesnoy,

Algardi Alessandro Algardi (July 31, 1598 – June 10, 1654) was an Italian high- Baroque sculptor active almost exclusively in Rome, where for the latter decades of his life, he was, along with Francesco Borromini and Pietro da Cortona, one of the maj ...

Francesco Fontana Francesco Fontana (, Naples – July 1656, Naples) was an Italian lawyer and an astronomer. Biography Francesco Fontana studied law at the University of Naples and then he became a lawyer in the court at the Castel Capuano. But failing to alwa ...

and

Cosimo Fancelli Cosimo Fancelli (c.1620 – 3 April 1688) was an Italian sculptor of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome. He worked on a number of commissions with Pietro da Cortona from 1647 until Cortona's death in 1669. Gian Lorenzo Berni ...

Biography

Born as Carlo in 1620 into the prominent princely

Massimo family The princely House of Massimo is one of the great aristocratic families of Rome, renowned for its influence on the politics, the church and the artistic heritage of the city. Legendary origins The Massimo family is sometimes referred to as one ...

, he was educated at

La Sapienza University The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

. He succeeded at age 20 to the estate of his cousin Camillo, from whom he derived his name. The elder Camillo had been the executor of the will of another great Roman collector, Marchese

Vincenzo Giustiniani Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (13 September 1564 – 27 December 1637) was an aristocratic Italian banker, art collector and intellectual of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, known today largely for the Giustiniani art collection, assembled ...

. He started his ecclesiastical career as papal prelate at a young age and in 1651 he became cleric of the Apostolic Chamber. On 15 December 1653 Massimo was made

titular Titular may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Title character in a narrative work, the character referred to in its title Religion * Titular (Catholicism), a cardinal who holds a titulus, one of the main churches of Rome ** Titular bisho ...

Patriarch of Jerusalem and a year later as

Apostolic Nuncio to Spain The Apostolic Nunciature to the Kingdom of Spain is an ecclesiastical office of the Catholic Church in Spain. It is a diplomatic post of the Holy See, whose representative is called the Apostolic Nuncio with the rank of an ambassador. For much of ...

. However,

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV ( es, Felipe, pt, Filipe; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered f ...

refused his appointment as nuncio, complaining he was too friendly with the French. He was forced to stop for a year in a small town between

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

and Madrid. Back in Italy Monsignor Camillo Massimo retired in semi-exile — from 1658 until the end of the pontificate of

Pope Clement IX Pope Clement IX ( la, Clemens IX; it, Clemente IX; 28 January 1600 – 9 December 1669), born Giulio Rospigliosi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 20 June 1667 to his death in December 1669. Biography Ear ...

in 1669 - in a town called Roccasecca dei Volsci, in his 'Palazzo Baroniale'. On 22 December 1670

Pope Clement X Pope Clement X ( la, Clemens X; it, Clemente X; 13 July 1590 – 22 July 1676), born Emilio Bonaventura Altieri, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 April 1670 to his death in July 1676. Elected pope at ag ...

elevated him to Cardinal with the title of S. Maria in Domnica, which Massimo later changed to that of

Sant'Eusebio Sant'Eusebio is a titular church in Rome, devoted to Saint Eusebius of Rome, a 4th-century martyr, and built in the Esquilino rione. One of the oldest churches in Rome, it is a titular church and the station church for the Friday after the fo ...

. He took part in the 1676 Papal conclave. In the same year he was opted for the title of

Sant'Anastasia Sant'Anastasia ( nap, Santa Nastàsë) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples in the Italian region Campania, located about northeast of Naples. Sant'Anastasia borders the following municipalities: Casalnuovo di Napoli ...

. He died in 1677 in Rome. Massimo's portraits were painted by both

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

and

Carlo Maratta Carlo Maratta or Maratti (13 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition ...

. He reorganised the Roman academy of the ''Umoristi''. He had copies, made by Pietro Santo Bartoli, of the illustrations of an antique edition of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

and drawings based on the ancient paintings found in the Tomb of the Nasonii in Rome. He was also aided the eccentric former Queen

Christina of Sweden Christina ( sv, Kristina, 18 December ( New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death ...

with her library and collections.

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Massimo, Camillo 1620 births 1677 deaths Clergy from Rome 17th-century Italian cardinals Italian art collectors Apostolic Camera Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem Italian art patrons