Bernini's Papal Portraits and Baroque Brilliance at Palazzo Barberini

The exhibition 'Bernini e i Barberini' at Palazzo Barberini in Rome explores the symbiotic relationship between Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his most important patron, Pope Urban VIII Barberini. Curated by Andrea Bacchi and Maurizia Cicconi, the show runs through June 14. It begins with Bernini's youthful development under his father Pietro, whose realistic, unheroic male bodies contrast with Gian Lorenzo's heroic Christian masculinity in works like 'Saint Sebastian' (1617–18) and 'The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence' (1616–17). A controversial attribution of a Saint Sebastian from Jouy-en-Josas to Gian Lorenzo is questioned. The second section focuses on public commissions under Urban VIII, including the Baldacchino (1624–33), with preparatory drawings and a model by Agostino Ciampelli. The third and fourth rooms feature Bernini's sculptural portraits of the Barberini family, which elevated portrait busts from funerary to official art. Highlights include Giuliano Finelli's bust of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger (1630). The fifth room presents Bernini's bust of his lover Costanza Bonarelli (1636–37), lent by the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence—a rare, lively portrait. Also on view are Bernini's paintings and a bust of Thomas Baker from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The exhibition omits Bernini's early patron Cardinal Scipione Borghese and lacks an English-language catalog.