Ciro Ferri (1634 – 13 September 1689) was an Italian
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
sculptor and painter, the chief pupil and successor of
Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...
.
Biography
He was born in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, where he began working under Cortona and with a team of artists in the extensive fresco decorations of the
Quirinal Palace
The Quirinal Palace ( ) is a historic building in Rome, Italy, the main official residence of the President of Italy, President of the Italian Republic, together with Villa Rosebery in Naples and the Tenuta di Castelporziano, an estate on the outs ...
(1656–59). He collaborated with Cortona and completed for him the extensive frescoed ceilings and other internal decorations begun in the
Pitti Palace
The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...
,
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
(1659–65). His independent masterpiece is considered an extensive series of scriptural frescoes in the church of
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Bergamo)
The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is a major church in the upper town of Bergamo, Northern Italy.
History
According to the popular tradition, partially supported by documents, the church was built to comply with a vow made to the Virgin Mary ...
. Also well known is his an altarpiece of ''St Ambrose Healing the Sick'' in the church of
Sant'Ambrogio della Massima
Sant'Ambrogio della Massima (also Sant'Ambrogio alla Massima) is an ancient Catholic church in rione Sant'Angelo, Rome, Italy. It is home to the General Curia of the Subiaco Cassinese Congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict.
Perhaps datin ...
in Rome.
In 1670, he began the painting of the cupola of
Sant'Agnese in Agone
Sant'Agnese in Agone (also called Sant'Agnese in Piazza Navona) is a 17th-century Baroque church in Rome, Italy. It faces onto the Piazza Navona, one of the main urban spaces in the historic centre of the city and the site where the Early Christ ...
in central Rome, in a style recalling of Lanfranco's work in the dome of
Sant'Andrea della Valle
Sant'Andrea della Valle is a titular church and minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the seat of the general curia of the Theatines and is located on the Piazza Vidoni, at the intersection ...
; but died before it was completed in 1693 by his successor Sebastiano Corbellini.
He executed also a large amount of miscellaneous designs, such as etchings and frontispieces for books; and served as an architect as well. Ferri was appointed to direct the Florentine students in Rome, and Gabbiani was one of his leading pupils. As regards style, Ferri ranks as chief of the grand manner of Cortona, also known as the Machinists movement, as opposed to the more sober and spare style promulgated by
Andrea Sacchi
Andrea Sacchi (30 November 159921 June 1661) was an Italian painter of High Baroque Classicism, active in Rome. A generation of artists who shared his style of art include the painters Nicolas Poussin and Giovanni Battista Passeri, the sculptor ...
, and continued by
Carlo Maratta
Carlo Maratta or Maratti (18 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian Baroque painter and Drawing, draughtsman, active principallly in Rome where he was the leading painter in the second half of the 17th century. He was a fresco and canvas painte ...
and others. Among the many pupils and assistants were
Ambrogio Besozzi
Ambrogio Besozzi or ''Giovanni Ambrogio Besozzi'' (1648–1706) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
Life
He was born in Milan in 1648 where his first training was with Gioseffo Danedi, ''il Montalto''. He assisted Ciro Ferri in Rome wit ...
Benedetto Luti
Benedetto Luti (17 November 1666 – 17 June 1724) was an Italian Baroque painter, draftsman, and pastelist.
Early life
Luti was born in Florence on 17 November 1666. He trained under Anton Domenico Gabbiani before moving to Rome in 1690.
Career ...
Tommaso Redi
Tommaso Redi (22 December 1665 – 10 October 1726) was an Italian painter, active during the late-Baroque in his native Florence.
He initially apprenticed with the Florentine painter Anton Domenico Gabbiani (1652–1726), and then moved to ...
Accademia di San Luca
The Accademia di San Luca () is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its first ''principe'' or director; ...
on 3 June 1657. His ciborium for the high altar of
Santa Maria in Vallicella
Santa Maria in Vallicella, also called Chiesa Nuova, is a church in Rome, Italy, which today faces onto the main thoroughfare of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the corner of Via della Chiesa Nuova. It is the principal church of the Oratorians ...
is a masterpieces of 17th-century bronze decorative sculpture. He continued under the patronage of the Medici, when together with the sculptor
Ercole Ferrata
Ercole Ferrata (1610 – 10 July 1686) was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque.
Biography
A native of Pellio Inferiore, near Como, Ferrata initially apprenticed with Alessandro Algardi, and became one of his prime assistants. When hi ...
, Ferri the painter led the Medici Academy in Rome, established in 1673 by Grand Duke
Cosimo III
Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdina ...
of Tuscany. Among the pupils sent there from Florence were
Anton Domenico Gabbiani
file:Antonio Domenico Gabbiani, pentecoste, 1705, 02.jpg, ''Pentecost'', 1705, San Giorgio alla Costa, Florence
Anton Domenico Gabbiani (13 February 1652 – 22 November 1726) was an Italian painter and active in a late Baroque style. He worked ...
,
Giovanni Battista Foggini
Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Foggini (25 April 1652 – 12 April 1725) was an Italian sculptor active in Florence, renowned mainly for small bronze statuary.
Biography
Born in Florence, the young Foggini was sent to Rome by the Medici Gra ...
,
Atanasio Bimbacci
Atanasio Bimbacci (circa 1654–1734) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in his native Florence. He painted a ''St Louis Gonzaga'' for the church of Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi in Florence. He also decorated a number ...
Massimiliano Soldani Benzi
Massimiliano Soldani or Massimiliano Soldani Benzi (15 July 1656 – 23 February 1740) was an Italian baroque sculptor and medallist, mainly active in Florence. Born at Montevarchi, the son of a Tuscan cavalry captain, Soldani was employed by th ...
.
Ferri was also responsible for the
Reliquary
A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''.
Relics may be the purported ...
of the Arm of
St. John the Baptist
John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
Malta
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
. Ciro Ferri contributed five illustrations to the missal of
Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII (; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death, in May 1667.
He began his career as a vice- papal legate, and he held various d ...
Chigi, which was published in 1662. It also contained works by fellow artists in Rome, including
Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...
Guglielmo Cortese
Guillaume Courtois () or italianized as Guglielmo Cortese, called Il Borgognone or Le Bourguignon ('the Burgundian'), (1628 – 14 or 15 June 1679Carlo Maratti,
Jan Miel
Jan Miel (1599 in Beveren, Beveren-Waas – April 1664 in Turin) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish painter and engraver who was active in Italy. He initially formed part of the circle of Dutch and Flemish genre painting, genre painters in R ...
,
Cornelis Bloemaert
Cornelis Bloemaert II (1603 – 28 September 1692), was a Dutch painter and engraver, who after training in the Dutch Republic worked most of his career in Rome. His workshop in Rome played an important role in spreading Italian art throughout E ...
, and
Pier Francesco Mola
Pier Francesco Mola, called Il Ticinese (9 February 1612 – 13 May 1666) was an Italian painter of the High Baroque, mainly active around Rome.
Biography
Mola was born in Coldrerio (now in Ticino, Switzerland).''Ecstasy in the Wilderness: Pier ...