We are in the Paolina Room, which is Paul III's room, the Counter-reformation pope, who organised the Roman Church's answer to Martin Luther's protestant reform. It was the entertaining room in the pope's apartment, where he welcomed his guests. This is why it had to be so lavish: to visibly communicate the dominance of the
It was decorated between 1545 and 1547 by Perin del Verga and his assistants, including Pellegrino Tibaldi and Girolamo Siciolante. On the vault we can see Paul III's coat of arms and episodes from the life of Alexander the Great, a clear allusion to the name of the pope, Alessandro Farnese. On the long walls, alternate niches with the cardinal virtues on large monochrome panels with other stories of Alexander; lastly, the smaller walls are dominated by tondos with the Stories of St. Paul, again in honour of the pope, and the figures of Hadrian and the archangel St. Michael. Just below the figure of St. Michael you will see two baboons in memory of a gift to the pope brought by foreign ambassadors.
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