Role Playing: Cardinals in Historical Action in Leandro Bassano's Honorius III Approving the Rule of St. Dominic in 1216 and the War of the Interdict

Leandro Bassano’s historical narrative painting, Honorius III Approving the Rule of St. Dominic in 1216, produced for the sacristy of the Dominican church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, depicts several contemporary cardinals here identifijied for the fijirst time while accompanying the pope, such as cardinals Giovanni Dolfijin and François de Joyeuse beside him. When the painting was executed, Venice was emerging from the difffijicult papal interdict of 1606, and it was thanks to the diplomatic negotiations of these two cardinals that the crisis was resolved favourably. Using this painting as a case study, this chapter examines how the representation of specifijic cardinals in public settings could assume a precise historical and political meaning.