Pope Jules II, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing right LCCN96514226

The elderly Pope is depicted with a long white beard, wearing a velvet mozzetta and a camauro cap. He is shown in a moment of quiet reflection, with his hands resting on the arms of a chair topped with acorn-shaped finials. This image is a 19th-century engraving based on the original 1511 oil painting by Raphael.

Julius II was a pivotal patron of the High Renaissance who commissioned Raphael's 'School of Athens,' a foundational visual synthesis of Neoplatonism and natural philosophy. His court included the influential Christian Kabbalist Egidio da Viterbo, who integrated Hermetic and Kabbalistic thought into the theological framework of the Roman Church.