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The order to portray a subject who had died decades earlier did not faze Bernini. Working from a painting, the soon-to-be famous baroque artist summoned up the beloved uncle of his friend Matteo Barberini, newly elected Pope Urban VIII. Bernini chose a massive but harmonious bust form, with the truncation below echoing the arc of the slightly turning shoulders. Shadows play over Francesco's aged face, especially in the sunken temples and beneath the bushy eyebrows. The sculptor's drill has pierced dark wells in the beard. Through movement, varied textures, and manipulation of light, Bernini contrived to animate the image of a man he had never seen in life.

Details

  • Title: Monsignor Francesco Barberini
  • Creator: Gian Lorenzo Bernini
  • Date Created: c. 1623
  • Physical Dimensions: overall with base: 80.01 x 65.88 x 25.72 cm (31 1/2 x 25 15/16 x 10 1/8 in.) overall without base: 60.96 x 65.88 x 25.72 cm (24 x 25 15/16 x 10 1/8 in.) base: 19.05 x 21.27 x 18.42 cm (7 1/2 x 8 3/8 x 7 1/4 in.)
  • Provenance: Cardinal Francesco Barberini [1597-1679], Rome; Palazzo Barberini alle Quatro Fontaine, Rome, by 1627; transferred 1635 to the Barberini's Palazzo alla Cancelleria, Rome; returned to Palazzo Barberini alle Quatro Fontane, Rome, until at least 1948;[1] sold to (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); sold July 1950 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1961 to NGA. [1] For these details of the Barberini family's ownership, see Catherine Hess' entry in _Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture_, exh. cat., The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2008-2009, Los Angeles, 2008: 125-128. Documents in NGA curatorial files indicate that the Barberini family was attempting to sell the sculpture as early as April 1948. [2] See the contract between Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi and the Kress Foundation for the purchase of 125 paintings and one sculpture (NGA 1961.9.102), formally ratified 6 July 1950 (copy in NGA curatorial files).
  • Medium: marble

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