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Algardi's portrait busts are much less flamboyant or self-consciously artistic in character than those of Bernini. Where Bernini sought movement and engagement in his portraits, Algardi's approach was more understated, and more concerned with evoking presence through minute attention to physiognomy. His busts seem more aloof because they functioned generally as part of funerary monuments where meditation and piety were the primary requirements.
The hallmarks of his approach to portraiture were established by the mid-1630s, when he created the posthumous portrait of Cardinal Giovanni Garzia Mellini.
The bust of Mellini stands in his chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo and shows the Cardinal turning towards the altar, his left hand on his heart and his right hand holding his place in a prayer book. The work was much admired in Algardi's day, and the critic Bellori praised the illusion of the deceased 'almost kneeling, in the act of praying to the altar'. The bust conveys a sense of Baroque piety and an assured technique: the lace appearing at the Cardinal's sleeves and the short cape carelessly folded behind his left hand are brilliantly observed, and such details contribute to the uncanny sense of a physical presence in the niche.
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