Friday, October 31, 2008

The successor...


to Cardinal Gasparri as both Cardinal Secretary of State and Camerlengo was of course Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli. The link to this photo was sent in by a reader (thanks Gregor!), who also pointed out that a) the photo was colored after being developed and b) the map in the background looks a bit like it shows the most western part of Germany and might therefore have been taken in the nunciature in Berlin.

2 comments:

latinmass1983 said...

I had a very similar picture on my site that I received from someone from Argentina. This person was helping me find pictures of Cardinal Pacelli when he went to Buenos Aires for the Int. Eucharistic Congress in 1934.

I noticed then that the colors of the painting/picture did not seem to match those of a Cardinal. The biretta is purple, the cappa manga is red and the cassock is black.

If we base it on the biretta, he was at the time a Bishop; however, this biretta does not seem to have a pom-pon, which would make him a Cardinal, which is what he was when he went to Argentina as Papal Legate a latere.

If we base it on the color of the cassock, what is he? Not a Cardinal, not a Bishop... what? But he has a ring, so he has to be a Prelate.

I personally, do not think that this was taken in Germany as the person who sent me this picture took it from a book that was only about the Eucharistic Congress in Argentina (1934) by which time Pacelli was a Cardinal - in this case, a Cardinal Legatus a latere.

Also, here he does not look too young.

I think that the person who retouched this picture/painting was not aware of the colors of prelatical dress.

Anonymous said...

Obviously a cardinal's biretta, therefore cardinal. The confusion is created by the added colour and texture. What a nice pic, though.