He was on the other hand, handsome, a great horse rider and a good dancer, which perhaps was no advantage for a cardinal but brought him numerous other benefits. Soon after becoming cardinal to the dismay of his mother and a great disappointment of the pope, Camillo decided to give up his cardinalship. This deed caused a great disapproval of the Roman elites, not only because such a resignation had almost no precedence, but also because soon after, the young Pamphilj married with the beautiful Olimpia, princess of Rossano. She was one of the most attractive single women of the then Rome – a widow of Paolo Borghese, but at the same time the only niece and heiress of the very wealthy Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, known for his passion for collecting and an enormous collection of art. This act especially did not appeal to Camillo’s mother, who simply disliked her daughter-in-law and the feeling was mutual. This mutual hatred lasted all their life together and was to the joy of the Romans a graceful topic of lampoons and satires.

Camillo, not bereft of artistic tastes and even the abilities to plan gardens, became a prince  and a collector, and as it would quickly turn out one of the greatest patrons of art of his time. After the death of his uncle, Pope Innocent X, as well as his mother, he inherited quite a fortune. Of course he had not been poor previously either, but it was at that moment that he matured and realized the responsibility he bears towards his family, which he displayed by his desire to commemorate the name of its greatest representative – the very Innocent X. Perhaps this was an expression of remorse after the shameful abandonment of the pope’s corpse without proper care from the family and not wanting to finance the coffin for the deceased, which Camillo had become infamous for years ago. However, this was also a great way to repair his damaged image, which had suffered greatly due to his earlier abandoning of the cardinalship – as we know – at his own whim. In order to make it all up, he undertook the financing of the unfinished projects of his uncle. He continued the years-long construction of the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, where the funerary monument of the pope was to be located. He also financed the great work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini – the ambitious design of the construction of the Church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale designated for the novitiate of the Jesuit Order, where Camillo also did not forget to properly highlight the presence of his family. Since he died at a rather young age he did not live to see the consecration of the Church of San Nicola da Tolentino, founded as an   ex voto for the cure of his seriously ill wife, which was also supposed to be a sort of an outpost of the Pamphilj family in an area dominated by Barberini foundations. He did, on the other hand, live long enough to see and enthusiastically participate in the planning and the erection of the Casino di Vila Doria Pamphilj, the suburban residence situated in a picturesque park.

All of his construction undertakings place him among some of the most outstanding Roman funders of the seicento period, as well as skilled creators of positive (as we would say today) PR, which significantly elevated the tarnished image of his own family.