Caravaggio – A portrait of cleric Monsignor Maffeo Barberini – later Pope Urban VIII
The Italian state has bought this portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini – later Pope Urban VIII – by Caravaggio for €30 million. This is one of the largest sums it has ever paid for an artwork. The purchase is part of a wider plan by the Italian government to prevent major artworks from being bought by private collectors. It had been in a private collection in Florence.
About 65 surviving works by Caravaggio are known, only three of which are portraits. This particular portrait has been transferred to the permanent collection of the Palazzo Barberini – the historic home of the family of the portrait’s subject in Rome – where it was first exhibited. It will be displayed alongside other works by the artist. It was painted in about 1598 and shows Barberini as a bearded cleric apparently issuing instructions with his right hand outstretched. Barberini was elected to the papacy in 1623 and served until his death in 1644. He was known as a prominent patron of the arts.
