Bust of a member of the Pamphilj family

Algardi’s genius for the sober representation of character has always been admired. The number of portrait busts by his hand is considerable. It would appear that already in the 1630s Algardi had begun to move away from his intense realism. Abandoning the warm and vivid treatment of the surface and the subtle differentiation of texture, he replaced the freshness of the early works by a noble aloofness in his later busts. One of the finest of that period, the stylish member of the Pamphilj family exhibits this classicism to perfection.