Antonio Raggi

Antonio Raggi (also called "Antonio Lombardo"; 1624-1686) was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque.

Biography

He was born in Vico Morcote near Como. His mentor in Rome for nearly three decades was Gianlorenzo Bernini. He was initially joined the studio of Alessandro Algardi, but none of his work there is independently recognized and by 1647, like Ercole Ferrata, Raggi was working for Bernini, for whom he was to become his closest and most prolific pupil. [Wittkower, R. p. 310] "In most cases Bernini supplied Raggi with detailed "modelli" and supervised his work closely enough so that Raggi's statues express Bernini's conceit ["Conceit" in the sense of "concetto", "conception".] almost as well as a statue from Bernini's own hand." [Mark S. Weil, "The Angels of the Ponte Sant' Angelo: A Comparison of Bernini's Sculpture to the Work of Two Collaborators" "The Art Journal" 30.3 (Spring 1971, pp. 252-259) p 256.]

He completed the stucco decoration of "San Tomaso di Villanova" in Castel Gandolfo (1660-1), the stucco decoration of Bernini's Sant'Andrea 1662-1665), the statues of "Saint Bernardino" and "Pope Alexander VII Chigi" for Duomo di Siena and the "Virgin and Child" in Saint Joseph des Carmes in Paris (1650-51). He made the "Baptism of Christ" for the Borromini's altar of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini (c. 1665). Recently-discovered documentation shows that he provided the kneeling figure of Saint Bernardino of Siena (1656-57) in Alexander VII's chapel at Santa Maria della Pace, and the two pairs of putti holding portrait medallions on the façade. [Jennifer Montagu, "Antonio Raggi in S. Maria della Pace" "The Burlington Magazine" 136 No. 1101 (December 1994), pp. 836-839.]

His masterpiece is the marble relief of the "Death of Saint Cecilia" [Relief started by Giuseppe Peroni (1626-63).] , in the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, Piazza Navona. Here it can be contrasted with the relief by Algardi's pupil Ercole Ferrata, of the "Stoning of Santa Emerenziana".

Raggi was instrumental in completing illusionistic stucco decoration accompanying Giovanni Battista Gaulli's ceiling fresco as other stucco figures in the Church of the Gesù. He was helped by Leonardo Retti, Michele Maglia, and Paolo Naldini. His stucco "Saint Andrew" (early 1660s) in Sant' Andrea della Valle, follows Bernini's design depicting the emaciated apostle rising to Heaven on a wisp of cloud amid a swirl of drapery.

He completed one of the ten angels carrying instruments of the Passion on the Ponte Sant'Angelo ("illustration"), based on a sketch provided by Bernini, [The workshop sketch is conserved in the Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome. (Weil 1971:257 fig. 11).] and the statue of the "Danube" (carved in 1650-51) in Bernini's Fountain of Four Rivers in Piazza Navona. He was elected to the Accademia di San Luca on July 1, 1657. Raggi died in Rome.

ee also

*Giacomo Serpotta‎

Footnotes

References

*cite book | first= Rudolf|last= Wittkower| year=1993| title= Art and Architecture Italy, 1600-1750| chapter= | editor= Pelican History of Art| others=1980 | pages= Penguin Books Ltd| publisher= | id= | url= | authorlink=
*cite journal|title=Antonio Raggi's Death of St. Cecilia|first=Robert|last=H. Westin|journal=The Art Bulletin|year=1974|pages=pp. 422–429|doi=10.2307/3049268|volume=56