The slightly heroic tone with which the physiognomy of the Pope is depicted reveals a quite different reading to that of the exceedingly famous contemporary picture by Velázquez in the same chamber.

It is the second version of the portrait bust, probably carried out to remedy the technical defect which had appeared during the execution of the bust now displayed where the first and fourth wings join; here we can see, at the height of the beard, the “pelo”, or flaw as it emerges in the material. The incident indirectly shows the speed at which Bernini worked, under constant pressure from the demands of the market.

This example is one of the few, but very important, sculptural pieces in the collection, which offers an extraordinary selection of the prevailing tendencies in this artistic discipline in the Rome of the middle of the seventeenth century.