CAFÁ (Caffa, Cofa), Melchiorre. - Sculptor, b. in Rome or in Malta in 1631 or 1635. He supplied the sketches and sometimes the models for the altars of certain churches in Rome (S. Caterina da Siena a Magnanapoli, S. Maria in Campitelli, S. Agnese in Agone) and in Malta. But it is in the bozzetti (some are in the Vatican Library) rather than in these sculptures, which underwent the intervention either of Ercole Ferrata, the master of C., or of his followers, that one must seek the measure of his sensitive and delicate art, with foreshadowings of eighteenth-century grace.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: O. Pollak, s. v. in Thieme-Becker, V, p. 347 (with bibl.); A. E. Brinckmann, Barocksculptur, II, Berlin 1917, p. 268; L. Ossola, Il Battesimo di Cristo di M. C. a Malta, in Dedalo, 7 (1926-27), pp. 131-35; R. Wittkower, Eine Bronzegruppe des M. C. in Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, 62 (1928-29), p. 227 et seq.; G. Delogu, La scultura italiana del Seicento, I, Florence 1932, p. 57.

Amalia Mezzetti

@incollection{ec3_cafa_caffa_cofa_melchitorre, author = {Mezzetti, Amalia}, title = {Cafá (Caffa, cofa), melchitorre}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {281--282}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/cafa-caffa-cofa-melchitorre} }

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Cafá (Caffa, Cofa), Melchiorre

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