Bust of Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio

The sepulchral bust of Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio transformed the traditional praying figure into an image of CounterReformation zeal. Finelli here conveys the illusion of the whole figure at prayer. The idea evidently touched a chord with the contemporary public, alluding to the beneficent power of the mass and hopes of eternal life. Even Bernini must have been impressed by his rival’s creativity here, for he adapted the same motif in subsequent funerary monuments, such as those in the Raimondi and Cornaro Chapels, and it thereby passed into the convention of Baroque memorial portraiture.