The 'Bernini and the Barberini' exhibition in Rome from 12 February
An opportunity to rethink the birth of the Baroque. The exhibition at the National Gallery of Ancient Art until 14 June 2026
by N.Co.
Key points
At the National Galleries of Ancient Art, from 12 February to 14 June 2026 comes the great exhibition 'Bernini and the Barberini', following the extraordinary success of Caravaggio 2025. In the setting of Palazzo Barberini, the exhibition curated by Andrea Bacchi and Maurizia Cicconi investigates the special relationship between Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Maffeo Barberini, his first and most decisive patron, elected Pope in 1623 with the name of Urban VIII. The exhibition is realised with the support of the main partner Intesa Sanpaolo and with the patronage of the Fabbrica di San Pietro in Vaticano.
An occasion to rethink the birth of the Baroque
The exhibition offers an unprecedented opportunity to reconsider the birth of the Baroque through the privileged lens of the personal and intellectual dialogue between Bernini and Pope Urban VIII, key figures in the affirmation of the artistic language of their time. The exhibition coincides with the 400th anniversary of the consecration of the new St. Peter's Basilica (1626), one of the highest moments of the Roman Baroque and of Bernini's activity.
The role of Maffeo Barberini discoverer of Bernini
The fulcrum of the exhibition is the investigation of Maffeo Barberini's role as the true discoverer of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, a recognition already highlighted by scholars such as Cesare D'Onofrio, Francis Haskell and Irving Lavin and decisive for the maturation of Bernini's language and for the great monumental undertakings realised in St. Peter's during the pontificate of Urban VIII.
The relationship between the artist and the cardinal who became Pope
In a still open debate on the origins of the Baroque - between those who place it around 1600, with Carracci and Caravaggio, and those who see it fully affirmed in the 1730s, with Bernini, Pietro da Cortona and Borromini -, the exhibition focuses precisely on the centrality of the relationship between the artist and Cardinal Barberini, later to become Pope, as the key to interpreting that epochal turning point.
Works on loan from museums and private collections
The initiative is also in continuity with the recent exhibitions at Palazzo Barberini dedicated to the Barberini and their artistic context, The Sovereign Image (2023) and Caravaggio 2025, which have already explored Maffeo's decisive role in the figurative culture of 17th century Rome. Thanks to the contributions of leading Italian and foreign scholars and to works on loan from museums and private collections, many of which are being exhibited in Italy for the first time, the exhibition aims to restore the full complexity of this major historical-artistic junction.
