BARATTA, FRANCESCO. – Sculptor, born in Massa Carrara (ca. 1590), died in 1666 in Rome, where he was a collaborator of G. L. Bernini. His most significant works are the bas-relief depicting the Ecstasy of S. Francesco (1635) in S. Pietro in Montorio, theatrical in its composition and pursuit of effects, and the statue of the Rio de la Plata in the Berninesque Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651). He was also in Venice, where he collaborated on the monument to Doge Valier in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo.
BIBL.: For the biography, cf.: the Vite of G. P. Bellori, G. B. Passeri, and L. Pascoli, cited by R., s. V. in Thieme-Becker, II, p. 406. For his collaboration with Bernini, cf.: S. Fraschetti, Il Bernini, Milan 1900, pp. 88, 181, 212, 414. Elsa Gerlini