Biscia¿s attention is divided between paper and viewer, suggesting that he has just received a letter or a petition. The effect is similar to Bernini¿s work from this period: both artists capture a moment of action in which viewer and sitter engage one another. Sacchi deliberately chose not to fully finish the painting; its spontaneity is more contrived than it appears. The degree of finish depended upon taste and a painting¿s function: this work would have appealed to connoisseurs. Sacchi kept it for his own collection of portraits of his patrons. His assistants likely produced a more finished version for the cardinal. A grid of lines is faintly visible across the surface: the grid would have helped a painter produce a copy.