Having ability and a powerful patron from his hometown of Siena helped Bernardino Mei to rise from obscurity as a provincial artist to fame and fortune in the important city of Rome. Fabio Chigi, from a powerful Sienese family, actively supported the Sienese painter. After becoming Pope Alexander VII in 1655, Chigi summoned Mei to Rome in 1657. There Mei joined the Accademia di San Luca and regula
