Camillo Astalli, known as Cardinal Pamphili

Camillo Astalli, known as Cardinal Pamphilj, painted in Rome in 1650 during Velázquez's second Italian journey, belongs to the series of portraits he made of the Roman aristocracy and ecclesiastical hierarchy during his stay. Astalli had been adopted into the Pamphilj family of Pope Innocent X — a social elevation that gave him Cardinal status and considerable influence. Velázquez renders him with the same directness he brought to Philip IV: the red cardinal's robes, the composed expression, the absolute refusal of flattery. The portrait was made in the orbit of the great Innocent X portrait and shares its atmosphere of concentrated observation; where the Pope's face expressed suspicious intelligence, Astalli's suggests a man still finding his way into the power structure that had claimed him.

Velazquez employs his signature technique of building form through subtle tonal relationships rather than linear definition, using his extraordinary sensitivity to light and atmosphere to create paintings of unmatched optical truthfulness.