A BIT IN DEEP: ERCOLE ANTONIO RAGGI

Raggi was born in 1624 in Vico Morcote, in the Canton of Ticino and died in Rome in 1686.
His master was the great Alexander Algardi.

At twenty-three he began to collaborate with Gian Lorenzo Bernini, an elective affinity that lasted over thirty years.
Remarkable, however, is the fact that, despite the bitter rivalry between Bernini and Borromini, he was called by the latter to make sculptures to be included within his architectures, such as at San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane and San Giovanni dei Fiorentini.

When Bernini was overwhelmed by orders, he was inspired by Raphael and formed something like the workshop of Raphael. the Soul of this workshop was Ercole Antonio Raggi, who nevertheless maintained and developed his own autonomous artistic personality, inspired not only to Bernini, but also to his former master Algardi and to the spirituality of Borromini.

Returning to the shops of Raphael and Bernini, what seems to be the key difference is that the one of Raphael, led by the extraordinary intellectual curiosity of the master and inspired by purchasers of equally extraordinary and incomparable cultural level, works in total spiritual harmony, while the one of Bernini answers to the genius of the master, but it maintains itself for practical requirements.

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