I’d spent countless hours fretting about how to fulfill my promise to the pope and make people love him. Pope Julius II wasn’t exactly warm, was he? He was as likely to curse you as bless you, fire you as praise you. I had to work to find that man’s humanity. I looked past his legendary temper and the pomp of his holy office, and I painted a man. An aging, slack-jawed, wrinkled, lonely man. I didn’t paint him as he was in the days after the French retreat—jubilant, fierce, strong. No, I painted him as he was before: bearded, beaten, worn, like any man battling through life. I didn’t find the pope’s beauty in his power, but in his frailty, a symbol of how youth and strength fade, even when buffeted by power. Death comes for us all, and not even a pope can stop it. When a man as powerful as a pope shows his vulnerability, you feel for him—don’t you?—and you can’t help but love him.

That’s the portrait that I painted.

But that’s not what they saw.

“It’s powerful.”

“Intense.”

“Calls for action.”

“It will make the people fear us.” His Holiness turned to me with that sagging, toothless smile of his and said, “You’ve done it, Raphael. You’ve made another miracle.”

And although it wasn’t my intention—it was not, believe me— those around the pope used my portrait to fan his flames of anger against those traitorous Florentines.

“Now, it’s time to behave like the man in this portrait,” said Felice, arm linked through her father’s. “Strong, decisive, aggressive. The people will want to follow this man as he conquers those who have rebelled against him.” Her eyes darted to me, then back to her father. “Like the Florentines.”

“Felice’s right,” nodded Cardinal Riario. “The Florentines must pay for supporting a scheme to depose you, or else what will be the deterrent for others rebelling against you?”

“I agree,” said Cardinal de’ Medici, stepping up to the pope’s side. (I noticed that Medici, for one, had not remarked upon the portrait’s ferocity—he’d seen it for what it was—but he hadn’t contradicted the others, either. When something pours in your direction, why push back?) “Now’s the moment to bring Florence back under the rule of the Medici.”

“You mean, bring Florence back under the rule of the papacy,” corrected His Holiness.

“Exactly,” said Medici. “Florence has rebelled and been a Republic for long enough. It’s time for us to assert control once again. Take Florence back for our side.”