Rome,
After dedicating a necessarily small but dazzling retrospective to Caravaggio in 2025, the Roman Palazzo Barberini will open “Bernini and the Barberini” on February 12, a major exhibition curated by Andrea Bacchi and Maurizia Cicconi that will study the deep relationship between the artist and Maffeo Barberini, who was his first and most decisive patron and, after being proclaimed pope in 1623, he adopted the name Urban VIII.
The examination of the fruits of Barberini’s support for the author of The Abduction of Proserpina It will also offer the opportunity to reconsider the origins of the Baroque movement from the privileged perspective of the personal and intellectual dialogue of these two figures, key in the definition of the artistic language of their time, and to commemorate the four centuries that have passed since the consecration of the new Saint Peter’s Basilica, one of the most significant moments in the history of Roman Baroque and Bernini’s own career.
This project focuses on a recent investigation into Maffeo’s role as the discoverer, one of the earliest and most influential, of Gian Lorenzo – a recognition already emphasized by specialists such as Cesare D’Onofrio, Francis Haskell and Irving Lavin – and as a determining influence in the maturation of the formal and expressive codes of this author and in the monumental works of the Vatican, which were developed precisely during his pontificate as Urban VIII.
In the context of this academic debate on the beginnings of the Baroque – which some place around 1600 with Carracci and Caravaggio as pioneering authors, or in the 1630s with Bernini, Pietro da Cortona and Borromini as the first swords -, this exhibition will highlight how our current approach to the dynamism and theatricality of 17th century art would be completely different without the contributions of Gian Lorenzo, only one year older than Velázquez or Van Dyck, absolute master in the representation of facial expressions, deeply knowledgeable about human behavior and, for all this, very suitable for granting visible (recognizable) forms to religious experience.
Following the path of the latest exhibitions that in this space have influenced the links between the Barberini family, especially Maffeo, and their artistic environment – “L’immagine sovrana” (2023) and the aforementioned “Caravaggio” (2025) – this latest proposal will delve into the first configuration of Roman visual culture in the 17th century, a stage as complex as it is crucial in the cultural field, and will feature unpublished pieces for the Italian public.
It will be articulated in half a dozen sections, dedicated to relevant aspects of the relationship between Bernini and the Barberini, from the artist’s early years to his full maturity and illuminating his transition from the late Mannerist language that was typical of his father, Pietro Bernini, to the emergence of his personal expressive language, as is known extraordinarily powerful.
The tour will not miss the Saint Sebastian of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum or the Putto with dragon from the Getty Museum, clear manifestations of the moment in which baroque sculpture comes to life; The four seasons from the Aldobrandini collection, which allow us to delve deeper into the links between Pietro Bernini and Gian Lorenzo; or the gallery of portraits of the Barberini ancestors—marble masterpieces sculpted by Bernini, Giuliano Finelli and Francesco Mochi—which today are spread across public and private collections and will be exhibited in the Palazzo Barberini for the first time.
Special attention will be devoted to the image and memory of Urban VIII, portrayed in marble and bronze busts exhibited alongside one of the few paintings attributed with certainty to Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
A specific section will address precisely his role as a painter, an activity he carried out at the initiative of Maffeo Barberini; I listened to him up to that point. Along with canvases equally virgin to the public, we will be able to see Bernini’s only significant public painting along with his pandndantits partner piece, the work of Andrea Sacchi, both exceptional loans from the National Gallery in London.
The set will be completed by drawings, engravings and models that will further illuminate the artist’s role in the construction works of St. Peter’s Basilica, from the baldachin to the reconfiguration of the transept and the monumental funerary complex of Urban VIII, the symbolic core of both the papacy and Bernini’s artistic era. And the exhibition will conclude with a broader look at the Barberini’s taste; This section includes works by Guido Reni; rarely exhibited busts, such as those of Thomas Baker (Victoria & Albert Museum) and Costanza Bonarelli (Museo Nacional del Bargello); and fundamental works by Alessandro Algardi and François Duquesnoy.
“Barberini and the Barberini”
PALAZZO BARBERINI
Via delle Quattro Fontane, 13
Rome
From February 12 to June 14, 2026
