(Rome 1578–1630)
Portrait of Cardinal Francesco Barberini,
signed with monogram and inscribed on the letter: Al M. Ill.ris. Sig. / Il Card. Barberini / OL (ligated)/ [Otta]vio Leoni,
oil on canvas, 131.5 x 94 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably collection of Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679), Palazzo della Cancelleria, Rome (see documentation);
Maurizio Marini (1942–2011) Collection, Rome;
where acquired by the present owner

Documentation:
probably inventory of Prince Maffeo Barberini, 1655, no. 310: Un altro Ritratto del Sig. Card.le Barberino à Sedere, che tiene un memoriale aperto in mano alto palmi Sei largo quattro, e mezzo Senza Cornice (see: M. Aronberg Lavin, Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art, New York 1975, p. 279, no. 310);
probably inventory of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, 1679, no. 206: Un Quadro di tela d’Imperatore con il ritratto di Sua Em.za senza Cornici (see: M. Aronberg Lavin, Ibid., 1975, p. 361, no. 206)

Exhibited:
Ariccia (Rome), Palazzo Chigi, I volti del potere. Ritratti di uomini illustri a Roma dall’Impero Romano al Neoclassicismo, 24 March - 20 May 2004, no. 39;
Rome, Museo di Roma, La Porpora romana. Ritrattistica cardinalizia a Roma dal Rinascimento al Novecento, 22 November 2006 – 25 February 2007, no. XVIII;
Tivoli (Rome), Villa d’Este, Ritratto Barocco. Dipinti del ’600 e ’700 nelle raccolte private, 3 July - 2 November 2008, no. 1

Literature:
M. Marini in: I volti del potere. Ritratti di uomini illustri a Roma dall’Impero Romano al Neoclassicismo, ed. by F. Petrucci, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2004, pp. 123-124 and fig. 39;
A. Anselmi, Il diario del viaggio in Spagna del Cardinale Francesco Barberini scritto da Cassiano dal Pozzo, Madrid 2004, p. XXIX, note 1, ill. fig. 1 and on the frontispiece;
B. Sani, La Fatica Virtuosa di Ottavio Leoni, Turin 2005, pp. 42-43, pl. 8 and fig. 140;
F. Petrucci, Ferdinand Voet (1639-1689) detto Ferdinando de’ Ritratti, Rome 2005, p. 63, fig. 45;
F. Gasparrini in: La Porpora romana. Ritrattistica cardinalizia a Roma dal Rinascimento al Novecento, ed. by M. E. Tittoni/F. Petrucci, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2006, pp. 88-89;
F. Petrucci, Pittura di Ritratto a Roma. Il Seicento, Rome 2008, vol. I, p. 147, fig. 212, vol. II, p. 336, no. 5, vol. III, p. 626, fig. 365;
Ritratto Barocco. Dipinti del ’600 e ’700 nelle raccolte private, ed. by Francesco Petrucci, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2008, pp.30-31;
F. Solinas, Ottavio Leoni (1578 - 1630). Les portraits de Berlin, Rome 2013, p. 27 and p. 38, note 73; Y. Primarosa, Ottavio Leoni (1578-1630) eccellente miniator di ritratti. Catalogo ragionato dei disegni e dei dipinti, Rome 2017, no. 71 (forthcoming publication)

The present painting was described as ‘l’espressione più alta nel campo dei ritratti cardinalizi’ [‘the highest expression among the cardinal portraits’] (Sani 2005, see literature) achieved by Ottavio Leoni. It is an important record of the artist’s ability and position as portraitist to the first rank of the Roman elite during the first quarter of 17th century.

This work depicts Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679), the nephew of Urban VIII who was elected cardinal in 1623, the same year that his uncle Maffeo became pope. The present painting may be identified as the one cited at number 310 in an inventory of 1655, drawn up by the Barberini family after their return to Rome following a period of exile in Paris, owing to disputes with the Pamphilj: ‘Un altro Ritratto del Sig. Card.le Barberino à Sedere, che tiene un memoriale aperto in mano alto palmi Sei largo Quattro, e mezzo Senza Cornice’ [‘Another portrait of Sig. Cardinal Barberino, Seated, holding an open memo, Six palmi high, Four and a half wide, Without Frame’]. The same work is most probably the one described as number 206 in the inventory drawn up at the death of Cardinal Francesco in 1679 recording the contents of his residence at Palazzo della Cancelleria: ‘Un quadro di tela d’Imperatore con il ritratto di Sua Em.za senza Cornici’ [‘A painting on canvas, Imperial size, with the portrait of his Eminence without Frame’].

In keeping with Ottavio Leoni’s portrait practice, there is a preparatory drawing for the present work conserved in the British Museum (inv. no. 1860-7-14-33) which is inscribed 30 settembre 1624, the same year given in the engraving after the present canvas executed by Leoni himself. Maurizio Marini (2004, see literature) has suggested that the present work was commissioned by the Cardinal that year to celebrate his appointment as Segretario di Stato [Secretary of State] in 1624, and that the letter held by the sitter alludes to this appointment. The sitter is shown in three-quarter length, according to a compositional type that was rooted in a practice established during the previous century. Leoni had formerly adopted this format, for example, in his Portrait of Scipione Borghese in the Musée Fesch, Ajaccio. Nevertheless, while remaining in keeping with the principles required by official portraiture, in the present painting Leoni was successfully able to integrate a degree of naturalism, reminiscent of Caravaggio. This is especially evident in the rendering of the rich fabrics and in the foreshortening of the sitter’s left hand: significantly, this detail specifically recalls a detail from Caravaggio’s Portrait of Maffeo Barberini conserved in Palazzo Pitti, Florence.