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Bernini's radical reformulation of the portrait bust had an inevitable effect on his followers and competitors. Of his competitors, only the older Francesco Mochi explored what could be termed an alternative style. His bust of papal nephew, Cardinal Antonio Barberini, part of a series of family portraits commissioned by Urban VIII in the late 1620s, seems almost a reversion to the austerity of late sixteenth-century sepulchral monuments. The features have been simplified, and the drapery and hair reduced to almost formal patterns, but the combination of an especially long torso and the delicate handling of the features makes for a portrait that is both imposing and sensitive. More abstract than contemporary taste, Mochi's portraiture nonetheless anticipated qualities that would be more highly valued in the eighteenth century.
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