Bernini, Gian Lorenzo (1598-1680)
Monsignor Francesco Barberini
c.1623
Marble, 80.01 x 65.88 x 25.72 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
This free-standing, white marble sculpture shows the head, shoulders, and upper chest of a balding, bearded man. In this photograph, his body faces us and he looks straight ahead. Bushy eyebrows arch low over deeply set eyes, and his forehead hollows inward at his temples. He has high cheekbones and the skin of his cheeks draws slightly in. His thin lips are set in a straight line within a full beard. His high-necked robe falls slightly open over his chest and is cut also away over the shoulders to show the crinkled fabric of the garment beneath. The bottom edge of the sculpture curves upward in a very shallow U across the bottom, and is supported by a square pedestal foot decorated with scroll designs. The background behind the bust lightens from charcoal gray along the top edge to pale gray across the bottom, and the sculpture casts a shadow behind its base.
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 Maffeo 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. (NGA)
See also:
• Barberini, Francesco (1528-1600) | Barberini, Maffeo (1568-1644), Pope Urban VIII (1623-1644)