two stamps on the frame: Regia Dogana di Firenze, 22/2/1915; and Art Objects Export Office

This attribution has been confirmed by Professor Anna Maria Ambrosini Massari, after having viewed the work live.

The scholar considers it a youthful masterpiece of the Pesaro artist, and the first version of the portrait of Cardinal Barberini junior, subsequently made on canvas in two versions, the first in a private collection in Rome ( formerly Sotheby's, London, 4 July 1990, lot 74) and the second preserved in the Galleria Corsini in Rome, painted later, in a half-length format and characterized by a less close-up shot than the previous portraits.

The work was probably performed in the flesh by Cantarini during the prelate's stay in Pesaro as papal legate, on the occasion of the devolution of the Duchy to the Church, in the summer of 1631. Coming from the collection of the Gennaro Santilli Foundation, in 1974 the canvas was notified by the Superintendency with the attribution to Jacob Ferdinand Voet, on the occasion of the Finarte auction of the collection of Prince Marcello Del Drago, to which it had belonged. The first to correctly identify the portrayal of the portrait and to attribute it to Gian Lorenzo Bernini was Valentino Martinelli in a 1984 study dedicated to Giulio Carlo Argan.

For a conclusive study on the painting with references to the previous bibliography, please refer to the currently published contribution by A.M.Ambrosini Massari, Simone Cantarini per Antonio Barberini, tre ritratti e la congiuntura naturalista, in “Rivista d’Arte”, 10, 2020.

The painting is subject to notification by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.