Charity

Algardi was one of the most accomplished sculptors of the Baroque period. He was an Italian sculptor, architect and draughtsman. Alongside Bernini he was the most important sculptor in Rome active around the middle of the 17th century. He produced the classizing antithesis to Bernini's High Baroque sculpture. They were seen and experienced at the time as rivals and equals.

This elaborately draped figure of Charity is unfinished, which is unusual for a bronze. It may have been made for the scaffold that Bernini erected in the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli for the funeral of a Roman nobleman.