FERRI, CIRO. - Painter, b. in Rome in 1634, d. there on 13 Sept. 1689. He was a pupil and collaborator of Pietro Berrettini da Cortona. Under the master's direction he executed in the gallery of the Palazzo del Quirinale during the pontificate of Alexander VII two frescoes representing the Annunciation and a Story of Cyrus.
In 1659 he was invited to finish in the Palazzo Pitti the decoration left incomplete by Cortona: there he completed the Hall of Apollo (1660) and there he painted the Hall of Saturn (1663-64). In Florence, where he remained until 1665, there remains by him the painting of the high altar in S. Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, representing the titular saint of the church in glory with the Virgin. He then went to Bergamo and remained there until 1667, frescoing the right nave of S. Maria Maggiore. In 1669 he returned to Rome, where he brought to completion various works left unfinished by Cortona, among them the frescoes of the dome of the Gavotti chapel in S. Niccolò da Tolentino. His last work in Rome was the decoration of the dome of S. Agnese in Piazza Navona, left unfinished at his death and completed by his pupil P. Corbellini. In Rome he executed other paintings in S. Marco, in S. Andrea al Quirinale, in S. Prassede, etc. For the cathedral of Monte Perzio he painted St. Anthony and the Child Jesus, and for S. Maria della Scala in Siena St. Teresa and St. Augustine. He made the design for the ciborium of the high altar of the Chiesa Nuova and the one for finishing the high altar of S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini, begun by Borromini.
In the field of secular painting, besides the works mentioned in the Palazzo Pitti, he frescoed in the Villa Falconieri at Frascati the allegories of Spring, Autumn and Winter, which are perhaps his masterpieces. He also worked on frontispieces of books, coats of arms, imprese, etc.
F. was also a sculptor; already the Titi guide to Rome (1763) cited as executed from his designs two silver statues in the church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, depicting Sts. Lawrence and Damasus; some years ago four of his statues were identified in the sacristy of the Roman church of the Gesù, representing St. Francis Xavier, St. Teresa of Lima, St. Philip Neri and St. Isidore the Farmer. In these sculptures the same forms as in the paintings are found, plastically translated. In his major works F. never knew how to free himself from the Cortonesque influence; his minor decorative works, on the other hand, are more personal.
Bibliography4 works
Vincenzo Galzio