Alessandro Algardi, an Italian sculptor, horn in Bologna about the year 1600, died in 1654. Domenichino obtained employment for him at Rome. By a statue of St. Philip Neri in the sacristy of the Oratorian church in that city, and a colossal group representing the decapitation of St. Paul in the church of the Barna-bites at Bologna, he achieved a reputation as the first sculptor of his time. He was chosen to execute the bronze statue of Innocent X., erected to commemorate the completion of the capitol at Rome. He produced the monument of Leo XL in St. Peter's; and for one of the altars in the same church he made the largest basso-rilievo in the world - a work in marble representing Attila checked by St. Leo.