Portrait Of Cardinal Antonio Marcello Barberini, By Antonio Alberti (1603–1649)

Antonio Alberti (1603–1649)

Portrait of Cardinal Antonio Marcello Barberini (Florence 1569–Rome 1646)
Inscription on the reverse: F.M D.D ANTONIUS BARBERINUS ROM. O. CAP. S.R.E. CARDIN.

Oil on canvas (99 x 73 cm., in an antique frame (regilded) 111 x 87 cm.)

FULL DETAILS (LINK)

Portrait of Cardinal and Bishop Antonio Marcello Barberini, brother of Pope Urban VIII, in cardinal’s robes while holding a letter in his left hand, painted by a 17th-century Roman artist. A painter who on several occasions portrayed the Barberini family—both the pope and the subject here (Fig. 1)—was Antonio Alberti (1603–1649), to whom an attribution could be proposed given the stylistic similarities.
He belonged to an influential Italian noble family, originally from Barberino in Tuscany, which moved first to Florence and then to Rome due to their commercial activities.
The family reached the height of its power thanks to Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, who in 1623 was elected pope under the name Urban VIII and who enabled the family to increase its wealth but, above all, its prestige. The Barberinis, in fact, obtained, among other titles, that of “Princes of Palestrina” in 1627.
Although Antonio Marcello decided in 1591 to join the Capuchins, an order dedicated solely to a strict monastic life, immediately after his brother’s election to the papal throne he was summoned to Rome and elevated to the rank of cardinal in the consistory of October 7, 1624.
After the death of Urban VIII, he did not fall from grace like his nephews Antonio and Francesco and retained the functions associated with the cardinalate.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The work is sold complete with an antique wooden frame and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic sheet.
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