Ciro Ferri
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Ciro Ferri (1634 - 13 September 1689) was an Italian Baroque painter, the chief pupil and successor of Pietro da Cortona.
He was born in Rome, where he began working under Cortona and with a team of artists in the extensive fresco decorations of the Quirinal Palace (1656-59). He collaborated with Cortona and completed for him the extensive frescoed ceilings and other internal decorations begun in the Pitti Palace, Florence (1659-65). His independent masterpiece is considered an extensive series of scriptural frescoes in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. In addition, also well known is his an altarpiece of St Ambrose Healing the Sick in the church of Sant'Ambrogio della Massima in Rome.
In 1670, he began the painting of the cupola of Sant'Agnese in central Rome, in a style recalling of Lanfranco's work in the dome of Sant'Andrea della Valle; 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, as opposed to the more sober and spare style promulgated by Andrea Sacchi, and continued by Carlo Maratta and others. The 1911 Brittannica refers to this as the so-called Machinists movement.
Ciro Ferri was also responsible for the Reliquary of the Arm of St. John the Baptist which is found in the Co-Cathedral of St. John, in Malta.
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Wittkower, Rudolf (1993). “Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750”, Pelican History of Art, 1980, Penguin Books Ltd, p328, 330.
