Portrait of Maffeo Barberini

Portrait of Maffeo Barberini
Italian: Ritratto di Maffeo Barberini
Artist	Caravaggio
Year	c. 1598
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	124 cm × 90 cm (49 in × 35 in)
Location	Private collection

Portrait of Maffeo Barberini (c. 1598) is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. First cataloged in 1963 by Roberto Longhi, one of Italy’s foremost 20th-century art historians, the painting had been in a private collection for decades, largely inaccessible to scholars and had not been featured in any of the major Caravaggio exhibitions. In November, 2024 the painting went on display at the Palazzo Barberini.

Barberini, 30 years old and from the eminent Florentine Barberini family, was a rapidly rising Church prelate, a friend of Caravaggio's patron Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, and himself a poet and patron of the arts. Barberini's support would continue into later years – in 1603 he commissioned a Sacrifice of Isaac from Caravaggio. In 1623 he became Pope as Urban VIII.

See also

• List of paintings by Caravaggio

References

• Creighton Gilbert. Caravaggio and his two cardinals. Penn State Press, 1995. ISBN 0271013125

External links

• Media related to Portrait of Maffeo Barberini by Caravaggio at Wikimedia Commons