The Genoese painter Giovanni Battista Gaulli, known as Baciccio, arrived in Rome in 1657, escaping the plague that had devastated his native city and his family. According to his biographer Lione Pascoli, around 1664 the powerful Genoese art dealer Pellegrino Peri introduced Baciccio to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the prince of the Roman Baroque. This was the beginning of an important working partnershi