Parodi, Genoese in origin, worked in his native city for the major part of his career. During the six years he spent in Rome, he worked closely with Bernini whose style he emulated and later incorporated into his own sculptural efforts (particularly the tomb of the Doge Morosini in Venice).

Filippo Parodi was highly esteemed both as a decorator and as a sculptor and his works are well documented by his contemporary Carlo Giuseppe Ratti. Several groups of marble busts by Parodi commissioned for the Palazzo Grimaldi and the Palazzo Dorazzi, both in Genoa, are among this artist's lost works.

The attribution of the present bust is based on comparision to Parodi's work in the Capella del Tesoro, the Santo, Padua. In both technique and style there are similarities to the marble angels intended to support the silver candelabrum at the foot of the altar, as well as to the six angels at the base of the door jams, and to the standing figures for the same altar.