Portrait of a Young Boy

Bernini Gian Lorenzo

(Naples 1598 - Rome 1680)

This painting came from the collection of Prince Chigi. It was purchased by the Italian state in 1919 to be included in the Borghese Collection. We are still unable to identify the boy portrayed here: some critics believe him to be a younger brother of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, two of whose self-portraits are held by the Galleria, one showing the artist as a young man and the other at a mature age. Rendered with rapid, dense brushstrokes, the boy’s face is characterised by an extraordinary candour, with an intense expression which immediately engages the viewer’s attention.

Object details

Commentary

This painting is documented among the acquisitions made by the Italian state in the early 20th century, where it was described as a ‘portrait of a young boy’ by ‘an unknown artist of the 17th century’. It was in fact purchased from Prince Chigi in 1919 for the Galleria Borghese, thanks to the efforts of Corrado Ricci. Once in the Collection, it was ascribed to Pier Francesco Mola. At the same time, Ricci revealed in a note written at that time that he had also taken the name of Gian Lorenzo Bernini into consideration as the artist of portrait (see Della Pergola 1959, p. 230, no. 112). Yet it was Muñoz (1920, pp. 148-149) who first made the formal attribution to Bernini. His view was supported by Longhi (1928, p. 226), De Rinaldis (1948, p. 68), Grassi (1945, p. 24) and by all subsequent critics with the exception of Martinelli (1950, p. 101), who inexplicably continued to uphold the original attribution to Mola.

Critics have long debated the identity of the portrayed figure. The painting, however, does not give any signs of his social status or the family to which he belonged. Some scholars have proposed that he may be one of Bernini’s younger brothers, Luigi or Domenico, born respectively in 1612 and 1616. Luigi was himself an architect and sculptor and often collaborated with Gian Lorenzo. He worked for the Chigi family during the pontificate of Alexander VII, a circumstance which may explain how the canvas found its way into this family’s collection (Petrucci 2003, pp. 153-54). A portrait of Domenico, meanwhile, has been identified among the artworks left by Bernini upon his death: if this is indeed the canvas in question, it would explain the complete absence of references to the work in 17th-century Chigi inventories and indicate that it entered the family collection at a later date (Petrucci 2006, p. 324).

The hypothesis that the subject portrayed is a member of Bernini’s family is based on the boy’s intense character, which makes a deep impression on the viewer. In addition, his strong resemblance to the subject of the so-called Portrait of Poussin (York City Art Gallery) suggests that the same model may have been used for both works, which would indicate a close relationship between the artist and the boy in question.

As in the Self-portrait as a Young Man – which also forms part of the Borghese Collection (inv. no. 554) – the representation here focuses exclusively on the face of the portrayed subject, while his white collar and the upper portion of his garment are only roughly sketched. The greenish backdrop is also found in both of the Bernini self-representations in the Collection, the one just mentioned and the Self-portrait at a Mature Age (inv. no. 545). The latter work is a half-length depiction of the artist at about the age of 40.

The work in question stands out for the extraordinary realistic power created by the boy’s intense gaze, his fleshy lips and his unkempt hair. The light from the left illuminates half of his face, which was rendered with dense and vibrant brushstrokes. The result is an image with an almost three-dimensional character, thus connecting the work to the artist’s production as sculptor (Herrmann Fiore 1992, pp. 41-42; Parca 2016, pp. 108-9). The marked juxtaposition of light and dark tones, with no transitions, have led critics of speak of a macchia painting – a technique involving rapid and full applications of paint –reminiscent of the works of the young Guercino (Herrmann Fiore 1992; Petrucci 2006, p. 324; Parca 2016).

With regard to the dating of the canvas, most scholars have proposed the 1620s (for a summary of the various critical positions, see Herrmann Fiore 1992). More specifically, in light of the similarities with the Self-portrait as a Young Man, the same date of roughly 1623 can be confidently taken as a point of reference for this work as well (Petrucci 2006, p. 324; Montanari 2007, p. 102). The only critic dissenting from this chronology is Herrmann Fiore (1992), who moved the date back to the following decade, given its similarities to the drawing with the portrait of Sisinio Poli (Morgan Library, New York), which was executed in 1638.

Yet if we accept the hypothesis that the boy in question is one of Bernini’s younger brothers – which, as we have seen, has not been confirmed by certain documentation – then we are forced to date the work to the early 1620s, when Luigi and Domenico were roughly ten years old, like the subject in the portrait.

Montanari (2007) noted similarities between our portrait and that made by Rubens of his daughter (Clara Serena Rubens, Liechtenstein collection), a revolutionary work in which the Flemish master’s representation of the girl’s direct gaze exploded the conventions of 17th-century portraiture. Bernini’s painting – which in all probability likewise depicts a person close to him – emits the same expressive power: rather than framing his subject in a traditional pose, he captures a spontaneous mood, a realistic moment of natural feeling (Parca, 2016).

Pier Ludovico Puddu