This bronze bust of Pope Clement X (Emilio Altieri, 1590-1676) is believed to be the collaborative effort of two of the most highly esteemed artists of 17th-century Italy. Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), primarily a sculptor, but also architect, painter and poet, was the controlling influence of all artistic production in Baroque Rome for over 60 years. Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639-1709), the author of the painting on the left, Diana the Huntress, was a friend and close associate of Bernini. He enjoyed great success as a painter of both large-scale public commissions and aristocratic portraits. Both Bernini and Gaulli executed many commissions for a succession of popes and their families. Bernini, who produced many works of art for the Altieri family, is known to have made a bronze portrait bust of Clement X. An extremely prolific artist, Bernini employed many assistants in his large workshop. According to one theory, Bernini may have enlisted Gaulli to provide a painted portrait to use as the prototype, since Bernini himself was briefly barred from the Pope's presence due to a scandal involving his brother. Pictured here is an engraving in the British Museum, London, of a lost painting by Gaulli which could have served this purpose. Bernini then sculpted the original clay model, but later entrusted Gaulli to oversee the precarious process of bronze casting. Documents recently uncovered in the Altieri family archives record payments made to Gaulli for the casting of a metal bust of this pope in 1671. An Italian scholar has recently proposed that these are one and the same sculpture, and has identified it as the Institute's bronze bust. Yet Bernini certainly maintained control over the working process and the final product. Signature features of Bernini's style found in his other papal portraits also characterize this sculpture, such as the energetic, expressive vitality of the modeling, acute psychological insight, and the whimsical, partly-fastened button on the cape. [Insert photo]