Francesco Maria Del Monte

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Francesco Maria Del Monte, full name Francesco Maria Borbone Del Monte (5 July 1549 - 27 August 1627) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church, diplomat and connoisseur of the arts. His fame today rests on his early patronage of the important Baroque master Caravaggio, and on his art collection (the Del Monte collection) which provides provenance for many important works of the period.

Born in Venice of the aristocratic Del Monte family (which provided several Popes and innumerable cardinals to the Church), and remotely descended from the royal Bourbon dynasty of France, he obtained a doctorate in law and was made a cardinal by Pope Sixtus V in 1588. As a cardinal he proved an accomplished diplomat and administrator: he represented the interests of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the former Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, in Rome, and was firmly but discreetly pro-French in the ongoing struggle between the French and Spanish for influence over the papacy. He served as Prefect of the Tridentine Council 1606-1616 and had ambitions of being elected Pope at the conclave of 1621, but his pro-French sympathies ensured his veto by the Spanish.

He died in his Rome palace (Palazzo Madama, today the home of the Italian Senate) and was buried in the church of Sant'Urbano, Rome.

Del Monte was a perceptive supporter of the arts and sciences of his day - he was the first recorded owner of the Portland Vase and his Palazzo Madama household was one of the most important intellectual salons in Rome. At his death his art collection contained nearly six hundred paintings, and his support of the young Caravaggio has given provenance to several of that artist's early works.