Italian sculptor, called Il Valsoldo, sometimes confused with the homonymous but younger "Valsoldino" (c. 1560-1646). The biography of Paracca was well framed in the second quarter of the seventeenth century by Giovanni Baglione, who dedicated to the sculptor a biography. He came to Rome as a youth and was active as a restorer of antiques under Pope Gregory XIII. He is described as an artist of indolent habits and dissolute character. His earliest surviving works are in the sculptures for the Cappella Sistina in Santa Maria Maggiore. After the completion of these, in 1591 he received the commission for two statues of St Peter and St Paul for the Cesi Chapel in Santa Maria in Vallicella. According to Baglione, he was responsible for the tomb of Cardinal Giovanni Gerolamo Albani in Santa Maria del Popolo, and for restoring the colossal Horse-Tamers on the Quirinal. //