Portrait of Young Boy

In 1623 Rome got a new pope, Urban VIII, and the young Bernini was fast becoming the artist he relied on most. This small head was painted in those same years, around 1623 to 1625, and the Galleria Borghese reads it as a private picture rather than a commission. No one knows for certain who the boy is. One suggestion is that he is one of Bernini's younger brothers, Luigi, born in 1612, or Domenico, born in 1616. The canvas itself offers a hint. It came from the collection of the Chigi family, and Luigi had dealings with that family while one of them, Alexander VII, was pope. Look at the hair and the collar, put down in quick, thick strokes and left rough. The museum compares that patchy handling to the early work of the painter Guercino.