FERRATA, Ercole

One of the last major projects by Bernini was the angels for the Ponte Sant’Angelo in Rome. Planned and executed between 1667 and 1669, the suite of eight, and subsequently ten, angels was designed by Bernini for Pope Clement IX as an embellishment to the ancient Roman Pons Aelius, which formed the principal link between the Vatican and the city. The major sculptors of the day were chosen to carve individual statues of the angels, each holding an instrument of the Passion of Christ, with two reserved for Bernini himself. The degree to which Bernini’s collaborators followed his intentions varied markedly, a reflection of the distance between the aging sculptor and his successors. Part of the disparity can be explained by his working method: Bernini left it to studio draughtsmen to make copies of his initial sketches.

According to tradition, Saint Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility born c. 291 and raised in a Christian family. She suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve or thirteen during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, on 21 January 304. The Prefect Sempronius wished Agnes to marry his son, and on Agnes’ refusal he condemned her to death. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the flames parted away from her, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and beheaded her.

Ferrata’s high altar sculpture, representing St Agnes on the pyre, bears unmistakable, though not entirely reconciled, elements drawn from Algardi and Bernini. The saint’s pose is indebted to one of Algardi’s most emotive works, the St Mary Magdalene, but the head and drapery are more classically correct. These elements are overlaid by two touches worthy of Bernini: the fire at St Agnes’s feet and the drapery billowing out for no apparent reason behind her shoulders. The result is a work whose impact is weakened by overly theatrical gestures.

The decoration of the Chigi Chapel was designed by Bernini. The most important parts of the decoration, along with the mosaics and the reliefs, were the four sculptures placed into the niches between the columns holding the cupola. Two of them, Jerome and Mary Magdalen, were made by Bernini. The other two statues were by artists from Bernini’s workshop, St Catherine of Siena by Ercole Ferrata and St Bernardino of Siena by Antonio Raggi.

The chapel as a whole was designed by Bernini.

Ferrata composed his relief according to the classical precepts, with the minimum of figures divided into clearly defined groups according to the part they play in the action. He renounced Bernini’s surface differentiation of the marble and here adopts Algardi’s even surface working. The result is extremely competent.

Ferrata composed his relief according to the classical precepts, with the minimum of figures divided into clearly defined groups according to the part they play in the action. He renounced Bernini’s surface differentiation of the marble and here adopts Algardi’s even surface working. The result is extremely competent.