A new exhibition in Rome is celebrating the legacy of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pope Urban VIII, Maffeo Barberini, who discovered and propelled the work of the young artist.
“Bernini and the Barberini,” taking place at the National Galleries of Ancient Art in the Palazzo Barberini, explores Bernini’s early relationship with his first major patron through sculptures, family portraits and rarely shown paintings.
Alongside Michelangelo and Canova, Bernini is one of the Church’s best loved and best known sculptors. Described when he was just a child by Pope Paul V as “the Michelangelo of his age”, collaborative works he completed with his father, Pietro Bernini, appear from when he was just 17 years old. A man of deep faith, his works contributed to the Counter-Reformation revival in the Eternal City.
