Self-Portrait of Gianlorenzo Bernini as a Mature Man

Bernini made this in the second half of the 1630s, when he was about 40, and long afterwards Italians carried the face around in their wallets. For many years it was reproduced on the 50,000 lire banknote, which goes a long way to explaining why it became one of the most familiar images of him. Look at how unevenly it is finished. The eyes, the raised brow, the moustache and the pointed tuft of beard are worked up with care, while the dark clothing and the background are brushed in quickly and left thin. The Bernini scholar Francesco Petrucci has suggested the artist may have stopped out of tiredness or dissatisfaction. The canvas reached the Galleria Borghese in 1911, as a gift from a baron named Otto Messinger, who wanted it to remain in Italy.