Portrait of Cardinal Antonio Barberini

Cardinal Antonio Barberini the Younger (1607–1671) was one of the most powerful and controversial figures in mid-seventeenth century Rome, a nephew of Pope Urban VIII whose family wielded enormous cultural and political influence. Though Cardinal Barberini died in 1671, Maratta's portrait of him, dated 1682, is likely a posthumous version produced for the Barberini family or an associated institution rather than a portrait from life. The Barberini were among the most important patrons in Roman Baroque culture — their palace housed one of Rome's finest collections, and they commissioned Bernini, Pietro da Cortona, and other leading artists. Maratta had early connections with Barberini patronage, and a commemorative portrait of the cardinal would have been a prestigious exercise in dynastic image-making. The portrait is now in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Rome, one of the primary repositories of Italian Baroque painting in the city.

The cardinal's scarlet robes in this posthumous portrait required Maratta to achieve variety within a dominant red tonality, a technical challenge he met through careful modulation of warm and cool shadow passages within the crimson field. Working from an earlier portrait or drawings rather than a live sitting may have constrained the psychological spontaneity present in his best portrait work, but the technical execution remains authoritative.