Born in Ticino, Pier Francesco Mola moved to Rome as a young man to become a painter. From 1633, he accompanied his father, an architect, on his commissions and thus lived for a long time in Venice and Bologna. In 1647, he returned to Rome and became the official painter of Cardinal Camillo Pamphilj. Mola created several fresco cycles for palaces of the Roman nobility. In 1655, he was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome and was elected Principe of the Roman painters' guild in 1662/63. Today, his paintings can be found in museums around the world, while his drawings are kept in the Louvre and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.