Raffaello, ritratto di Giulio II, dettaglio, National Gallery, Londra 02

An elderly, bearded Pope sits in a three-quarter view, appearing deep in thought with a downcast gaze. He wears a red velvet mozzetta and camauro over a white pleated rochet, with hands heavily adorned with jeweled rings holding a white handkerchief. The background consists of a green textile patterned with the crossed keys of the papacy and chair finials shaped like acorns.

Julius II was the primary patron of the High Renaissance, commissioning Raphael's 'School of Athens' and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. His papacy represents the peak of the Church's synthesis of Christian theology with the revived Neoplatonic and Hermetic philosophies of the Italian Renaissance.