Alessandro Algardi

(Italian, 1598–1654)

Place ActiveRome, Italy, Europe

BiographyBorn in Bologna, Algardi studied at the academy of the Carracci and with minor local sculptors. He served Ferdinando Gonzaga in Mantua for a few years, but in 1625, after a brief detour to Venice, he moved to Rome, where he remained for the rest of his highly successful career. Like his rival Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Algardi sought commissions from churches and the nobility, soon winning a roster of illustrious patrons for his religious and mythological subjects and portrait busts. After Bernini’s champion Pope Urban VIII was succeeded by Innocent X in 1644, Algardi also received many important papal commissions.

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.