testament ; otherwise everything would .go to the Church.53
As
in many portraits of cardinals and high church dignitaries they are
depicted as wearing two or more rings, it has been erroneously
conjectured that each ring represented a separate benefice, there being
thus as many rings as benefices. The ceremonial regulations, however,
clearly indicate that the wearing of many rings is simply a matter of
taste, all except that on the annular finger of the right hand being
purely ornamental.54
A
ring on the fourth finger of the right hand is shown in Carlo Maratta's
portrait of Pope Clement IX (1667-1670), given to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, by Archer M. Huntington, Esq., in 1891. The
ring bears no design, the setting being a large, square, beveled stone.
The beard and mustache of the pontiff are of the type familiar to us in
portraits of Cardinal Richelieu, who died in 1642.
A
splendid example of the cardinal's ring was recently made for Cardinal
Farley. It is set with an exceptionally large and fine sapphire, of
rounded oval form and an inch in length ; the color is rich and deep ;
the stone weighs 18-1/2 carats and is a Cinghalese sapphire. A
bordering consisting of twenty-eight diamonds surrounds the central
stone and serves to render more strikingly beautiful the rich blue of
the sapphire, often called the "cardinal's stone" because it is the one
used for cardinal's rings. This is noteworthy, as red is preeminently
the cardinal's color, as is shown in his robes, hat, etc. ; hence we
might rather expect that the ruddy
ss X. Barbier de Montault, " Le costume et les usages ecclésiastiques selon la tradition romaine," Paris (1897), vol. i, p. 162.
54 Ibid., vol. i, p. 159.
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
