Italiano 
English 
Español Despite his remarkable and controversial intellectual profile, he long remained in the shadows of studies on the period. Only in recent years has it been possible to better understand his complex and ambiguous personality, thanks to the materials preserved in the archives of the Fondazione Camillo Caetani, which reveal an encyclopedic breadth of interests, contacts, thoughts, and feelings — but also attitudes and opinions unusual in the Roman environment.
Educated at the Collegio Nazareno from 1751 to 1761 and graduating in law from La Sapienza in 1764, he embarked on an ecclesiastical career that earned him, in 1772, the appointment of «supernumerary apostolic protonotary».
As hopes of advancing in the ecclesiastical career faded, he began a discreet publishing activity of a historical-theological nature, whose value remains debated. Endowed with profound though traditional erudition, yet burdened by his status as the younger son of one of the oldest and most prestigious Roman dynasties, and perhaps also by mental illness, Onorato Caetani deserves attention not only as a restless spirit and in some respects decidedly modern, but also for the singular circumstance that led him to commission his portraits from three of the most renowned painters of the age. The paintings, executed within a short span of time (1779-1784) by Anton Raphael Mengs, Batoni, and Angelika Kauffmann — still preserved in the same location — served him as a touchstone for psychological self-examination, that is, as a 'mirror' through which to understand his character and behavior.
The most eloquent document of this attitude is the brief comment in which he compares the portraits by Mengs and Batoni:
Batoni painted me as Rome knows me, Mengs painted me as Mr. de Felice knows me
Maybe you might be interested
The portrait commissioned in 1783 from Angelika Kauffmann — who, after sixteen years spent in London (1766-1781), had recently returned to Rome and opened her studio on Via Sistina near the church of Trinità dei Monti — is described as a portrait «of the head without hands».
To paint a half-length figure without hands required at most four hours divided into three sittings, but beyond the study from the model, the finishing still required additional time and work. In a note addressed to Caetani, the painter in fact apologizes for having completed the portrait late, probably because of other commitments, including the large portrait of the royal family of Naples personally presented by her to the sovereigns at the Royal Palace of Caserta on March 24, 1784.
Apart from the documents in the Caetani archives, there are no other sources concerning the personal relationship between Caetani and the painter, who was famous and highly sought after when she arrived in Rome in 1782, where she became a center of social attraction.
Angelika softens the prelate's appearance with soft and voluminous hair, creating a graceful, worldly, and sociable effigy.
