Barberini family and provided the subject for a major international conference in December 2004 (and subsequent publication), entitled "I Barberini e la Cultura Europea". Family tree of the 16th and 17th century Barberini ("hereditary patriarchy of the family is indicated by the colored squares"). Barberini family The Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII. Their urban palace, the Palazzo Barberini, (completed in 1633 by Bernini), today houses Italy's Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica (National
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (to this day) the marble originals of two of Bernini's own angels executed by the master for the Ponte Sant'Angelo. True to the decorative dynamism of Baroque, among Bernini's most gifted creations were his Roman fountains, which were both public works and papal monuments. His fountains include the "Fountain of the Triton", or "Fontana del Tritone", and the Barberini Fountain of the Bees, the "Fontana delle Api". The Fountain of the Four Rivers, or "Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi", in the Piazza Navona is a masterpiece of spectacle and political allegory. An oft-repeated, but false, anecdote tells that one of the