This celebrated bust portrays the notorious sister-in-law of Pope Innocent X Pamphilj. The appalling reputation of the woman is owed to her ambitious character and to the intrigues she instigated on the strength of her relationship with the pope. Her actions were so outrageous as to cost her, on the death of her powerful ally, banishment to a residence in Alto Lazio, where she died of the plague.

This portrait is one of the highest examples of Roman sculpture of the middle of the seventeenth century. The artist, Algardi from Bologna, was the main exponent of the classicist “front” of the time, at least as far as sculpture was concerned.

There are, however, very close resemblances with the main works of the Roman Baroque, as is shown by the virtuoso rendering of the widow’s veil, blown up with air, which is certainly not far from the language of Bernini. This and other formal elements put the work much closer to the creations of Bernini than we might expect from the differences emphasized by the critics of the time.