Abstract

This article analyses the variety of ways in which portraits of Pope Pius IX operated in Chile during the nine-teenth century, where the emphasis ranged from his status as a religious authority to his being the ruler of the Papal States, and the attention paid to the aesthetic nature of his portraits in the public realm. By reviewing the di{erent instances in which these portraits were displayed, this article examines how these paintings shaped the public image of the Pope. Furthermore, it will be argued that the settings in which these portraits were exhibited revealed the ways in which the symbolic meaning of the portraits was transformed in the di{erent contexts in which they circulated.