Ercole Ferrata 3 - London Art Week

3.
Ercole Ferrata
Pellio Inferiore (Como) 1610 – Rome 1686

ST ANDREW THE APOSTLE

Terracotta, h. 48 cm

T
          his is a preparatory terracotta model for the figure of St Andrew the Apostle sculpted in
          travertine after 1664 (the commissioning document is dated April of that year) by Er-
          cole Ferrata and destined for the façade of Sant’Andrea della Valle, alongside another
statue depicting St Andrea Avellino.1 Two well-known terracotta models of these statues survive
(44 and 42 cm high respectively), now in the Hermitage in St Petersburg and originating from
the Venetian collection of Filippo Farsetti; these little models were already attributed to the
Maltese sculptor Melchiorre Cafà in the printed 1788 inventory of that collection. There were
two versions of both (the second was mistaken for a St Cajetan, probably because a statue of
this saint by Domenico Guidi was placed on the façade of the Roman church) in the Farsetti
collection (“St Cajetan, by Melchiorre the Maltese”, “St Andrew the Apostle, by Melchiorre the
Maltese”; “St Andrew the Apostle, by Melchiorre the Maltese”, “St Cajetan, by the Maltese”).2
The Hermitage still holds another two smaller versions of these terracottas (38.5 and 39 cm
high respectively).3 The attribution to Cafà of the larger versions, whose modelling is of excep-
tional smoothness, has been unanimously accepted by subsequent criticism.4 Already in 1994,
Ursula Schlegel published another version of the St Andrea Avellino (Martinelli Collection),
which she proposed attributing to Ferrata for its different style; this attributive hypothesis was
later accepted by critics (including the present author).5 Its size (48.5) allows us to suggest that

1
      Oreste Ferrari, Serenita Papaldo, Le sculture del Seicento a Roma, Rome 1999, p. 33.
2
      The 1788 inventory was reproduced as an appendix in Alle origini di Canova: le terrecotte della collezione
      Farsetti, catalogue of the exhibition, Rome, Fondazione Memmo, Venice 1991, pp. 22 and 24 of the 1788
      edition.
3
      Sergej Androsov, entries in Alle origini di Canova cit., pp. 82-83, nos 32-33; cfr. also Sergej Androsov, entry
      in From the Sculptor’s Hand. Italian Baroque Terracottas from the State Hermitage Museum, catalogue of the
      exhibition, Chicago, Art Institute, Chicago 1998, p. 100, no. 29; Sergej Androsov, Museo Statale Ermitage.
      La scultura italiana dal XVII al XVIII secolo. Da Bernini a Canova, Milano 2017, pp. 286-287, nn. 66, 67, 70,
      71.
4
      In addition to the bibliography cited in the other notes, cfr. also Jennifer Montagu, Melchiorre Cafà’s models
      for Ercole Ferrata, in Melchiorre Cafà: Maltese Genius of the Roman Baroque, ed. by Keith Sciberras, Valletta
      2006, p. 68.
5
      Ursula Schlegel, Arbeiten in Terracotta von Alessandro Algardi und Ercole Ferrata, in Studi di storia dell’arte in

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Ercole Ferrata, Saint Andrew the Apostle, Roma,
                                                      Sant’Andrea della Valle

it was the probable companion piece to that presented here. It is clear that whilst on the one
hand Ferrata made use of Cafà’s collaboration in the years during which the two artists lived
and worked together, on the other the majority of currently known terracottas by Ferrata, who
must have studied his younger colleague’s way of manipulating clay, date to precisely this period.6
The Lombard sculptor is known to have assembled an exceptional collection of terracottas,
including both inventions by the greatest sculptors of his time (Cafà himself, but also Gian
Lorenzo Bernini and Alessandro Algardi) and copies of ancient works, now known thanks to

      onore di Mina Gregori, Cinisello Balsamo 1994, pp. 281-283; Androsov, entry in From the Sculptor’s Hand
      cit., p. 100, no. 29; Andrea Bacchi, Ferrata, Cafà, i Falconieri e un nuovo modello per la Fede in San Giovanni
      dei Fiorentini, München 2012, unnumbered pages, ill. 18-19. Montagu (cfr. preceding note) also considers
      this second terracotta to be by Cafà.
6
      Bacchi, Ferrata, Cafà, i Falconieri cit.

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Melchiorre Cafà, Saint Andrew the Apostle,
Saint Petersburg, Ermitage

a surprisingly precise and detailed inventory. The document specifies that on his death Ferrata’s
studio contained a “St Andrew in clay”.7 Though many of the pieces certainly by the master’s
hand were accurately listed as Ferrata’s own works, it is likely that many other terracottas men-
tioned in the document were also modelled by the owner of this studio-workshop, and the “St
Andrew in clay” might be that presented here. The early inclusion of Cafà’s two small models
in the prestigious Farsetti collection is certain evidence of the high regard in which they were
held; it is also remarkable that information on their authorship was always preserved. But natu-
rally Ferrata also created his own working materials with a view to translating them into larger
pieces: the terracotta in the Ermitage differs for the greater definition of some features, such as

7
      Vincenzo Golzio, Lo ‘studio’ di Ercole Ferrata, in “Archivi d’Italia”, II, 1935, p. 70.

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Ercole Ferrata, St. Andrea Avellino, Collezione Martinelli

the folds of the drapery. His work on these statues for Sant’Andrea della Valle was an important
public test for Ferrata (the statue is already mentioned by Filippo Baldinucci in his biography of
the artist),8 who was already an established sculptor,9 though the commission document stated
that he was to adhere to the instructions of the architect who designed the church façade, Car-
lo Rainaldi (“in keeping with Rainaldi’s design”).10 The same restriction was also imposed on
Guidi, but Ferrata was never an artist known for his inventive capacities; he was nonetheless a
specialist of undeniable skill as this impeccable translation of Cafà’s small model, in a style that
we could almost describe as “classicist” for its noble composure, amply demonstrates.

ANDREA BACCHI

8
      Filippo Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua (Florence 1681-1725) ed. by Ferdi-
      nando Ranalli, 7 vols, Florence 1845-1847, V, 1847 p. 382.
9
      On Ferrata’s career cfr. Andrea Bacchi, Ercole Ferrata, in Andrea Bacchi (with the collaboration of Susanna
      Zanuso), ed., Scultura del ‘600 a Roma, Milan 1996, pp. 802-805 and Gerardo Casale, Ferrata, Ercole, in
      Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 46, Rome 1996, pp. 760-764.
10
      Cfr. note 1.

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