Der goldene Herbst der Barberini

After the death of Urban VIII, the Barberini experienced one of the worst crises ever endured by a papal family. However, they also succeeded at a spectacular recovery. Through an analysis of selected artworks and the relevant contexts of creation, this study elucidates the strategies of artistic self-fashioning that the Barberini employed to achieve this and the ways in which they drew upon their previously accumulated social and cultural capital along the way. This analysis, for the first time in the scholarship, stretches far beyond the critical period just after the papal death. This longue durée sheds light on mechanisms of post-pontifical self-representation in a family context that spans several generations and historical moments.