Coin Cabinet for a Member of the Barberini Family

This cabinet was likely once part of the furnishings of the celebrated library and study in the palazzo of Pope Urban VIII’s nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini. The library was renowned not only for its books, but for its collection of ancient coins, medals, and gems. Designed as a piece of architecture—a temple in miniature—this coin cabinet must have originally sat on a table or credenza with its back flat against a wall. The base, meant to mimic steps, forms two tiers of drawers, while the center has a pull-down, hinged panel carved and painted with the coat of arms of the Barberini (three bees). When this panel is open it reveals a stack of fourteen pull-out trays, each fitted with a pattern of circular and oval cavities, and lined with silk and velvet in vibrant colors including red, black, yellow, green, and purple. Though now empty, these trays and other hidden drawers in the entablature and superstructure above would have held rare coins and medals collected for the delight and interest of the Barberini family as well as for the study and contemplation of their distinguished guests, nobles and visiting scholars who were welcomed to the library. The summit of the cabinet must have formed a base for a now lost piece of sculpture. Its design with its deeply carved volutes (scrolls) and imaginative use of grotesque masks with wings recall the contemporary ornamental work of the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598–1680), and the monumental St. Peter’s Baldachin he designed for the Pope Urban VIII at that time. The structure and purpose of this cabinet attest to the erudition of this powerful Roman family and their connection to the classical past of their city.