Antonio Raggi

Antonio Raggi (also known under the name of Antonio Lombardo; * 1624 Morcote, † 1686 in Rome ) was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque.

Life

Raggi worked in the workshop of Alessandro Algardi before, as already Ercole Ferrata, entered the service of Gianlorenzo Bernini. He was the most prolific student of the great master, who was to be his mentor in Rome for three decades. In the first period Raggi led only predefined models from under Bernini's supervision, so that the statues were marked from the time of Bernini's complacency, as if they were his own hand. Based on a drawing by Bernini created Raggi one of ten of suffering tools supporting angels on the Ponte Sant'Angelo, also the statue of the Danube River ( Danube ) ( 1650-51 ) for Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Rivers ( Four Rivers Fountain) in the Piazza Navona.

In the later years Raggi had acquired sculptural independence. He was extremely capable of performing illusionist stucco decorations and, for example, Giovanni Battista Gaullis ceiling fresco and stucco figural elements in the Church of the Gesù in order to give the perfect setting. Its stucco work of Saint Andrew (early 1660s ) in the church of Sant ' Andrea della Valle follows Bernini's design and represents the emaciated apostle, as he ascends to clouds and wrapped in blankets in the sky. The image factory death of St.. Cecilia in the Church of S. Agnese in Agnone at the Piazza Navona was his masterpiece. The multi-figured scene shows his preference for the picturesque relief as the characteristic form of Baroque sculpture. With the expansion of the image space by overlapping the frame and the emotional intensity of the characters Raggi seems the art of Bernini to transfer to the next generation.

Raggi completed the stucco decoration of San Tomaso di Villanova in Castel Gandolfo ( 1660-61 ), the stucco decoration of Bernini's Sant'Andrea ( 1662-65 ), the statues of Saint Bernardino and Pope Alexander VII for the Siena Cathedral and the Statue Virgin and Child in the church of Saint- Joseph -des- Carmes in Paris ( 1650-51 ). His works also the baptism of Christ for the Borromini Altar of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini is one church ( about 1665 ). A documentary recently found is that he and the kneeling figure of the Bernardine of Siena ( 1656-57 ) in the Pope Alexander VII 's Chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Pace holding together with two pairs of portrait medallions putti on the facade has created.

On July 1, 1657 Raggi was elected to the Accademia di San Luca.