Commissioned to Bernini, and probably executed with the conspicuous collaboration of Giuliano Finelli, a talented pupil and then a rival of the same master, the bust represents the ideal portrait of Antonio Barberini (1494-1559), great-uncle of Urban VIII. Of republican and anti-Medici sympathies, Antonio had left Florence to travel for a long time in Italy, taking care of the family business, and was assassinated in Rome, perhaps by the assassins of Cosimo I de 'Medici's ambassador. In 1629 the Barberinis had him erect a funeral memorial in San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, decorated with a more modest replica of the sculpture of Palazzo Barberini, destined instead for the ideal gallery of portraits of family glories collected by Cardinal Francesco, as also shown by the capriccioso cartouche unfolded by the heraldic bee and perhaps intended to bear the name of the effigy.