Today your local tour guide in Rome takes you back to Palazzo Barberini, home to an incredibly interesting museum with many valuable pictorial artworks, as well as exquisitely frescoed ceilings, like in the case of the majestic Triumph of Divine Providence. But what sometimes catches the eye are works that almost blend in among many other wonders. Like the portrait depicting a young and beautiful girl, whose delicate features with a vaguely melancholic and sensual gaze has become, over the centuries, a sort of icon. The painting was used by anticlerical spirits, at other times as a feminist icon, more generally as a symbol of innocence that can be destroyed by human violence. Why all these feelings? Because, according to tradition, this portrait represents Beatrice Cenci, a young woman who, unwittingly, became the protagonist of an unpleasant news event at the end of the sixteenth century.

But why did this girl become a symbol of struggle and persecution, even centuries later? In a few lines, I will tell you the reason. She, still a teenager, indeed killed her father, with the complicity of her mother. The reason? The man was violent and an exploiter, never hesitating to denigrate, mistreat, and use violence against the women of his household. Despite the reasons that led to the murder, and despite the fact that the entire population of Rome, who became very passionate about the story, was all in favor of the women, both Beatrice Cenci and her mother were executed. The pontiff, according to the chronicles of the time, could not act otherwise as he was the guarantor of justice, both human and divine. This is why this young girl, depicted here, has become an anticlerical symbol over the centuries. Also, according to tradition, the portrait was supposedly created by Guido Reni, a renowned artist in Rome known for his delicate details, who allegedly immortalized Beatrice Cenci the night before her execution. Moreover, the painter in question, highly sought after and renowned in Rome, as well as very active, had clashed, on more than one occasion, with the pope himself, such as with his Archangel Michael and the quarrels with Pope Innocent X Pamphili (here you can read more about it). Even the author of the painting, in some way, knew how to cause a stir in the Rome of that time. It is a pity, however, that much of what I have written can be attributed to mere tradition, to nothing certain.

We have no evidence that the author of the portrait was Guido Reni, just as we have no evidence that the young woman was indeed Beatrice Cenci. However, since the nineteenth century, these rumors have circulated, reinforced by various poets and writers who supported the previously written theses. It is no coincidence that it was precisely during that period that such rumors circulated widely, as the loss of temporal power of the popes in Rome, and the consequent rise of a predominantly secular and often anticlerical power, meant that anything that could even vaguely cast a negative light on the papacy had to be publicized. It reminds me of Cola di Rienzo and his markedly anti-papal politics, so much so that he deserved, centuries later, a statue near the Cordonata on the Capitoline Hill. Apart from this, though, the fact remains that this magnificent portrait, exhibited at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, is truly excellent. The pose of the young woman, but above all her almost pitiful gaze, aware of what surrounds her, is very powerful and overwhelming. There is tenderness in that face, there is the beauty of art.