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Having ranked among Rome's best sculptors in the early 1630s, Mochi was soon overshadowed by Bernini and Alessandro Algardi. During the last twenty years of his career Mochi had only five significant commissions, and two of these were withdrawn and awarded to Bernini and Algardi. The marble group of the Baptism (c. 1634–50; Palazzo Braschi, Rome) and his Sts Peter and Paul (1638–52; Porta del Popolo, Rome) were both rejected by their patrons and subsequently installed in locations other than those for which they had been intended.
These late 'expressionistic' works have generated more discussion than any other aspect of Mochi's career. One interpretation suggests that they are reversions to Florentine Mannerism, while another compares them to a trend in painting of the late 1630s and 1640s that emphasized an internalization of emotion and a dematerialization of form.
The statues of St Peter and St Paul were intended for San Paolo fuori le Mura but are now on the Porta del Popolo in Rome.
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