Bernini and the Barberini Exhibition at Palazzo Barberini: Tickets, Dates, and Times

Following the extraordinary success of Caravaggio 2025, Palazzo Barberini is hosting a highly anticipated event dedicated to the leading figures of the 17th century.

From February 12 to June 14, 2026, the rooms of the National Galleries of Ancient Art will host “Bernini and the Barberini,” a major exhibition curated by Andrea Bacchi and Maurizia Cicconi, produced with the support of the Barberini Foundation.

The exhibition coincides with a symbolic moment: the 400th anniversary of the consecration of the new St. Peter’s Basilica (1626), one of the most significant events in Baroque Rome and one of the artistic undertakings in which Gian Lorenzo Bernini left a decisive mark.

Conceived as an immersive journey into the birth of the Baroque, the exhibition reconstructs the human, intellectual, and artistic relationship that united Bernini with his first and most influential patron, Maffeo Barberini, who became Pope Urban VIII.

With exceptional loans from some of the world’s most important museums — from the Louvre to the Paul Getty Museum, from the Albertina to the Vatican Museums, from the Thyssen-Bornemisza to the National Gallery in London — the exhibition will offer the public the opportunity to discover masterpieces never before brought together, retracing an artistic season that changed the face of the Eternal City forever.

The exhibition thus inaugurates a new chapter in Palazzo Barberini’s cultural program, continuing the journey dedicated to the Barberini family and their role in shaping Roman artistic taste, following the exhibitions The Sovereign Image (2023) and Caravaggio 2025.

Useful information for visiting “Bernini and the Barberini”

• Location: Palazzo Barberini – National Galleries of Ancient Art, Via delle Quattro Fontane 13, Rome
• Exhibition dates: February 12, 2026 – June 14, 2026
• Ticket office: purchase your ticket by clicking here
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. (last admission at 5:00 p.m.)
• Reservations and advance sales: Online reservations are recommended on busy days.
• Accessibility: Palazzo Barberini is accessible to people with reduced mobility; elevators and dedicated services are available.
• Transportation: Metro A: Barberini stop (5 minutes on foot), Bus: lines 52, 53, 61, 80, 85, 160
• Email: info@barberinicorsini.org
• Social: @BarberiniCorsini (Facebook, Instagram, X)

How the exhibition works: what you will see at “Bernini and the Barberini”

The exhibition “Bernini and the Barberini” is designed as a journey through the birth of Roman Baroque.

The exhibition is divided into six thematic sections, through which visitors can follow the artistic evolution of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his special relationship with Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII.

In this section, we will explore the various sections of the exhibition, which we will examine in depth, one by one, in the following chapters.

A selection of early masterpieces introduces the public to the artist’s development. Extraordinary works are on display here, such as: Putto with Dragon (c. 1617) from the Getty Museum, Saint Sebastian from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and The Four Seasons from the Aldobrandini Collection.

This section documents the transition from his father’s late Mannerism to the birth of Bernini’s style. to the birth of Bernini’s style.

The second section (“discovery of the Baroque”), on the other hand, shows how Bernini’s talent was recognized and supported by Maffeo Barberini himself. Through sculptures, documents, and international loans, the public can witness the birth of the Baroque revolution: dynamism, theatricality, emotion.

One of the most eagerly awaited moments of the exhibition is the Barberini ancestors gallery. For the first time in centuries, the busts of the family’s ancestors, created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Giuliano Finelli, and Francesco Mochi, are returning to Palazzo Barberini.

Works now scattered across museums and private collections, brought together exceptionally to reconstruct the history and prestige of the Barberini dynasty.

We then move on to a section dedicated to the pontiff who changed Bernini’s career.

On display here are marble and bronze busts, portraits, symbolic objects, and works celebrating the figure of Urban VIII and his role in establishing the Baroque style.

The last part explores Barberini’s taste and the artistic context of the time.

Bernini dialogues with works by: Guido Reni, Alessandro Algardi, François Duquesnoy, Thomas Baker (Victoria and Albert Museum) and Costanza Bonarelli (Bargello), one of the most famous portraits in Baroque sculpture.

The exhibition concludes with an overview of 17th-century Rome, a city in turmoil, shaped by the artist’s genius and the cultural ambition of the Barberini family.

Now let’s take a closer look at the different sections of the exhibition.

Section 1: The Origins of Baroque

After a practical introduction to the exhibition, visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the most formative phase of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s career, when the young artist’s style was still searching for its definitive form.

This is a crucial historical moment for understanding how Roman Baroque came into being.

Bernini’s apprenticeship took place in the workshop of his father, Pietro Bernini, from whom he inherited technical mastery of marble and the syntax of late Mannerism.

But it was precisely through his engagement with this tradition that Gian Lorenzo began to break away, introducing an emotional dynamism and a liveliness of gesture into sculpture that were unprecedented.

Works such as Saint Sebastian in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and Putto with Dragon in the Getty Museum already show a desire to push marble towards a more natural, theatrical expressiveness: the surface vibrates, the figures twist, the narrative seems captured at its most intense moment.

Pietro and Gianlorenzo Bernini, Putto on a Dragon, c. 1616-17 (Getty Museum) – Credits Wikipedia

The Four Seasons from the Aldobrandini Collection, placed alongside his father’s works, clearly reveal the moment when Bernini “transcended” his father’s influence and created a personal style that would define the aesthetics of the 17th century.

In these first rooms, you can see what scholars consider to be the dawn of Baroque sculpture:

• movement replaces staticity
• light becomes a narrative tool
• emotion takes the place of ideal balance
• theatricality surpasses Mannerist elegance

It is a radical shift, which only comes to full fruition after his encounter with Maffeo Barberini, but which here, in his early works, already manifests itself as a promise of revolution.

The itinerary highlights how the talent of the young Bernini did not develop in isolation: the presence of Maffeo Barberini, even before his election as pope, was an essential stimulus.

As a cultured patron of the arts, the future Urban VIII was among the first to realize that this young sculptor had the ability to transform the codes of the art of his time.

The exhibition thus suggests that the birth of Baroque was not only an artistic process, but the result of an intellectual and cultural relationship that was destined to have a profound impact on 17th-century Rome.

Section 2: Gallery of the Barberini Ancestors

One of the most exciting and eagerly awaited parts of the exhibition “Bernini and the Barberinis” is the reconstruction, for the first time at Palazzo Barberini, of the famous Gallery of the Barberini Ancestors.

It is a collection of marble busts celebrating the members of the family, a dynasty destined to become the absolute protagonists of 17th-century Rome.

These works, now scattered among public museums and private collections, have never been reunited in the spaces for which they were originally conceived.

The exhibition therefore offers a unique opportunity: to bring the Barberini ancestors back into the palace that preserves their architectural and cultural memory.

It is a “homecoming” that goes beyond aesthetic value: it allows us to reconstruct the original function of these sculptures as instruments of representation, symbols of prestige and visual genealogy of a family that, with the election of Maffeo Barberini as Urban VIII, reached the pinnacle of political and religious power.

The series of ancestors represents an extraordinary dialogue between some of the greatest sculptors of the seventeenth century, called upon to confront the identity and history of the Barberini family.

The exhibition features works by: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Giuliano Finelli, and Francesco Mochi.

The comparison between these three masters is revealing: on the one hand, Bernini’s dramatic force and vibrant naturalism; on the other, the virtuoso precision of Finelli, famous for his almost hyperrealistic rendering of details; and finally, the classical composure of Mochi, who brings a Renaissance-inspired balance to sculpture.

The recomposition of these busts allows us to understand how Baroque sculpture was able to express power, identity, and memory, transforming the portrait into a theater of emotions and self-representation.

This section clearly highlights:

• the family’s concern for its public image;
• the use of sculpture as a political language;
• the role of artists as official interpreters of family prestige.

In the mosaic of Roman Baroque, the Barberini were not only patrons: they were the architects of a cultural strategy that involved architects, painters, sculptors, and writers.

Section 3: Urban VIII

The exhibition dedicates an entire section to the role of Urban VIII, the figure who, more than any other, shaped the artistic destiny of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Here, visitors discover how the Barberini patrons shaped not only a new aesthetic language, but also a new representation of papal power.

Elected in 1623, Maffeo Barberini transformed art into a strategic tool to communicate authority, modernity, and splendor.

Among his first acts was the appointment of the young Bernini as court artist, entrusting him with commissions that would change the image of the Church forever.

The pope was not only an enlightened patron of the arts: he was a true director of visual propaganda of his time, aware of the evocative power of sculpture and monumentality.

This room displays marble and bronze busts from important Italian and international museums.

The works demonstrate Bernini’s ability to convey not only the pope’s physical appearance, but also his spiritual authority, intellectual energy, and political climate.

Alongside the busts, the exhibition presents one of the very few paintings attributed with certainty to Bernini, flanked by its counterpart painted by Andrea Sacchi.

This comparison, made possible by exceptional loans from the National Gallery in London, testifies to Urban VIII’s desire to encourage the artist to try his hand at painting, placing him fully within the circle of the great protagonists of seventeenth-century figurative culture.

This section highlights how, in the Baroque era, portraits were much more than individual representations: they were political devices.

The sculptures and paintings of the pontiff served to consolidate the prestige of the Barberini family, celebrate the unity of the Church, and define an iconographic model capable of enduring through the centuries.

Urban VIII understood that Bernini was the only artist capable of translating this vision into works that combined majesty, pathos, and technical innovation.

The exhibition reflects this synergy, offering visitors the opportunity to observe up close the creation of one of the most famous papal images in art history.

Section 4: Bernini as painter and draftsman

The exhibition dedicates a section to the discovery of Bernini as a painter and draftsman, a lesser-known aspect that is nonetheless fundamental to understanding the artist’s complete training.

By the will of Urban VIII, Bernini was not only a sculptor and architect: he was encouraged to try his hand at painting, drawing, and set design, becoming a true “total artist” of 17th-century Rome.

In this room, visitors will find a selection of paintings attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, some of which are on public display for the first time.

The paintings reveal a surprising talent for painting, capable of capturing expressions, characters, and variations in light with an almost theatrical sensitivity.

A key moment is the comparison between the only public painting attributed with certainty to Bernini and its counterpart created by Andrea Sacchi, on loan from the National Gallery in London.

This pair allows us to observe closely the dialogue between different arts and the refined cultural environment that surrounded the Barberini family.

Alongside the paintings, the section presents a significant collection of drawings, sketches, and engravings.

These materials are essential for understanding Bernini’s creative method: preparatory studies, lighting tests, variations in pose, initial ideas that anticipate the monumentality of his mature works.

Section 5: The construction sites of St. Peter’s

An entire section of the exhibition is dedicated to the great construction sites of St. Peter’s, the place where Gian Lorenzo Bernini reached full artistic maturity and made a decisive contribution to the definition of Roman Baroque.

It is here that the artist’s genius is most clearly evident, through monumental projects that combine sculpture, architecture, and scenographic invention.

This section presents models, sketches, drawings, and engravings documenting Bernini’s work inside the Vatican Basilica.

These materials allow us to reconstruct the different stages of the project and understand how the artist intended the sculpture to be an integral part of a sacred space, filled with light, movement, and emotional tension.

A key moment is the reconstruction of the creative process behind the Baldacchino di San Pietro, one of the absolute masterpieces of the Baroque period.

Canopy of St. Peter’s Basilica (Gian Lorenzo Bernini) – ID 243781456 @ Bernard Bialorucki | Dreamstime.com

Through preparatory studies and period materials, visitors can closely follow the creation of this monumental work, a symbol of papal authority and a perfect synthesis of technical invention and theatricality.

The section also explores the remodeling of the transept, a complex undertaking in which Bernini transformed the liturgical space into a place of spectacular visual intensity.

Documents and models illustrate how the artist played with perspectives, visual axes, and light distribution to achieve an unprecedented scenic effect.

The tour ends with the Tomb of Urban VIII, the symbolic heart of the Barberini pontificate.

Through models, studies, and graphic evidence, the exhibition recounts how Bernini conceived a monument capable of uniting power, devotion, and memory, transforming funeral iconography into a theatrical narrative of extraordinary spiritual power.

This section allows visitors to understand Bernini’s key role in defining the appearance of Christianity’s most important basilica and reveals how the Vatican construction sites were the laboratory in which the artist consolidated his vision of Baroque as a total art form.

Section 6: Dialogue with 17th-century artists

The exhibition continues with a fascinating section that broadens the perspective beyond Bernini himself, exploring the cultural context in which his style was formed and established.

This section is dedicated to the dialogue between the artist and other leading figures of the seventeenth century, highlighting the central role of the Barberini family in defining Roman Baroque taste.

The Barberini court was a veritable hotbed of artistic innovation, animated by personalities of the highest caliber.

The exhibition reconstructs this scenario through a collection of works that bear witness to the richness and variety of the languages of the time.

Alongside Bernini’s sculptures are masterpieces by Guido Reni, Alessandro Algardi, and François Duquesnoy, artists who played a key role in the Baroque period.

A significant part of the exhibition is dedicated to rarely displayed busts, such as that of Thomas Baker from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Another notable piece is the famous portrait of Costanza Bonarelli, from the Bargello National Museum, a work that masterfully expresses the emotional power of Bernini’s sculpture.

Portrait of Costanza Bonarelli (Gian Lorenzo Bernini) – ID 199431571 @ Gianni Tonazzini | Dreamstime.com

These comparisons allow us to observe the diversity of sculptural poetics in the seventeenth century. We move from the soft classicism of Duquesnoy to the vibrant theatricality of Bernini and the formal rigor of Algardi.

Visitors can thus compare different approaches to the same theme, discovering how Baroque is a rich, complex, and non-monolithic movement.

This section strongly highlights the role of the Barberini family as promoters of a new, modern, and cosmopolitan taste.

Their patronage helped define an artistic language based on magnificence, pathos, and the ability to amaze.

The expression “Apes Urbanae“, used by Leone Allacci to describe the Barberini circle, reflects their prominent role in the cultural life of 17th-century Rome.

International loans, catalog, and related initiatives

The exhibition also stands out for the exceptional nature of the international loans that have made it possible to reconstruct such a broad and in-depth journey.

Numerous museums and private collections, both Italian and foreign, have collaborated to bring together works that rarely leave their usual locations.

Among the institutions involved are the Albertina in Vienna, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.

Bust of Pope Paul V (Gian Lorenzo Bernini), Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum

Important loans also come from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, the Vatican Museums, the National Gallery in London, and the National Gallery in Washington.

In addition to these are works from private collections, the Morgan Library in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The variety of works brought together allows visitors to access materials that are rarely seen together, making the exhibition a unique reconstruction of the dialogue between Bernini and the Barberini family.

The investigation into the origins of Baroque thus takes on extraordinary completeness thanks to the international scope of the project.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a scientific catalog published by Allemandi.

The volume includes essays by the editors and leading specialists, as well as analytical descriptions of the works on display, offering an up-to-date and in-depth study tool.

The catalog is an essential complement to the exhibition experience, useful for those who want an even deeper understanding.

There will also be study days and conferences dedicated to the central themes of the project.

Among the topics covered will be the functioning of papal patronage, the links between art and politics in the seventeenth century, and the very definition of “Baroque” as a critical category.

These initiatives will allow us to explore lesser-known but fundamental aspects in order to grasp the cultural significance of Bernini’s era.

The project benefits from the support of Coopculture as a technical partner.

Thanks to a network of collaborations between Italian and international institutions, the exhibition is shaping up to be one of the most important events on the cultural calendar in 2026.

Frequently asked questions about the exhibition “Bernini and the Barberini”

Conclusions

“Bernini and the Barberini” is not just an exhibition.

It is a return to the origins of Baroque.

It is a journey into a historic period in which art, politics, and spirituality intertwined, giving shape to a new idea of beauty.

The exhibition traces the development of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, from his early works to his dialogue with the great masters of the seventeenth century.

It brings together for the first time the Gallery of Barberini Ancestors, restores the monumental construction sites of St. Peter’s to their former glory, and shows the artist in his most complete identity: sculptor, painter, architect, and inventor.

Visitors thus discover the decisive role played by Urban VIII, the pope who believed in the talent of a young artist and who, together with him, helped shape the imagery of modern Rome.

Their relationship, both human and intellectual, is the common thread linking all sections of the exhibition.

Thanks to extraordinary international loans and a rigorous scientific project, “Bernini and the Barberini” is one of the most significant cultural events of 2026.

A unique opportunity to understand how and why Baroque became the visual language that still defines the Eternal City today.

The exhibition invites visitors to see Rome with new eyes.

Recognizing in its views, sculptures, and architecture the innovative power of an era that transformed marble into theater, light into storytelling, and gesture into emotion.

Visiting “Bernini and the Barberini” means rediscovering the beauty of a creative dialogue that changed the history of art forever.