The ''Bust of Francesco Barberini'' is a marble sculpture by the Italian artist
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italians, Italian sculptor and Italian architect, architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prom ...
, now in the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
It was executed in 1623. It was commissioned by
Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII (; ; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death, in July 1644. As pope, he expanded the papal terri ...
, who was a nephew of Francesco Barberini, an
apostolic protonotary. Francesco had died in 1600, so Bernini created the bust from an existing painted portrait. That portrait is in the Corsini Collection in Florence; Bernini made close use of the design, although the painting was a three-quarter portrait as opposed to a bust of head, shoulders, and upper body.
Provenance
The sculpture was given to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in 1961 as part of the Kress Collection donation. The Kress Foundation had bought the sculpture in 1950 from
Count Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, as part of a collection of 125 paintings and the one Bernini sculpture.
National Gallery of Art website
retrieved 26 June 2019.
See also
*Barberini family
The House of Barberini is a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in the 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII. Their urban pa ...
* Francesco Barberini (the subject's great-nephew)
*List of works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
The following is a list of works of sculpture, architecture, and painting by the Italian Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The numbering follows Rudolph Wittkower's Catalogue, published in 1966 in ''Gian Lorenzo Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roma ...
References
External links
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
*
{{Gian Lorenzo Bernini
1620s sculptures
Busts in Washington, D.C.
Marble sculptures in Washington, D.C.
Busts by Gian Lorenzo Bernini