FRANCESCO BARATTA. — Sculptor, b. at Massa Carrara (c. 1590), d. in 1666 at Rome, where he was a collaborator of G. L. Bernini. His most significant works are the bas-relief with the Ecstasy of St Francis (1635) in S. Pietro in Montorio, theatrical in its composition and in the search for effects, and the statue of the Rio della Plata of the Vernerian Fountain of the Rivers (1615). 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, of G. B. Passeri and of L. Pascoli, cited by R., s. V. in Thieme-Becker, II, p. 406. For collaboration with Bernini, cf.: S. Fraschetti, *Il Bernini*, Milan 1900, pp. 88, 181, 212, 414. Elsa Gerlini