Ferrata, Ercole

FERRATA, ERCOLE. - Sculptor, b. at Pellio inferiore (Como) in 1610, d. in Rome on 10 July 1686. He worked in Naples and in the Abruzzi, then in Rome, where he remained almost always, and worked as a collaborator of the two greatest and mutually contrasting sculptors of the time, Bernini and Algardi. From the fact that at his death numerous models of works by the classicizing François du Quesnoy were found in his studio, it is legitimate to suppose that he was in close contact with the Flemish master.

He sculpted, following Algardi, the Moestà del Regno in the monument erected by Algardi himself to Leo XI in St. Peter's, and the Carità in the tomb of Clement IX in St. Mary Major, designed by C. Rainaldi. He approached Bernini in the statue of Clement X in his sepulchre in St. Peter's, designed by Mattia de Rossi and adorned with statues by other Bernini followers. For the Borrominian church of St. Agnes in Piazza Navona he made the marble altarpieces representing the Martyrdom of St. Emerentiana (finished by Leonardo Reti), St. Eustace among the beasts (begun by Melchiorre Cafè) and St. Agnes in the flames, in which he appears decidedly drawn to Bernini. He also worked for Bernini on the Pimentel monument in the church of St. Mary sopra Minerva, and sculpting the Angel bearing the Cross on the Ponte S. Angelo. Also under Bernini's direction he made the statue of St. Catherine in the chapel of the Vow in the cathedral of Siena. He completed the statue of St. Anastasia sketched by Francesco Aprile, in the church of the same name. He had several pupils, among whom the best known are Camillo Rusconi, Giovanni Battista Foggini, Filippo Carcani, Giuseppe Mazzuoli.

Vincenzo Golzio