The iconography is so internally coherent and so complete as to suggest that patronage is not an accretion to his ecclesiastical authority as it is an unfolding of that authority, a position which the pope rightly holds. Patronage is a liturgical act. The iconography of patronage which is concentrated to a brilliant point in the Holy Father himself is also writ large on the Christian polity. When the church acts as patron to the social order, doctrinal truth and ecclesiastical authority become the pattern for the law and judiciary of the civic culture. When the Church gives of Herself completely and becomes the patron to the world, she becomes written on the society at large.
Patronage is the way that the truth of the church is transmitted to culture.
The church is magnified through the secular culture, and the secular culture flourishes. The dynamic of patronage fulfills a variety of functions simultaneously. On the level of iconic content, it brings Christ into the world, makes society Christian, makes its people Christian, makes all arts and civic institutions Christian. On the level of iconic action, each act of patronage is a representation of God's plan of salvation in Christ through the Church, most especially through the pope. The economy of such an image is beyond human invention, and I think, one of so many arguments for the divine institution of the papacy.