Sculptor. After being apprenticed to his father, a locksmith, Ferenczy attended a course on copperplate engraving at the Vienna Academy where he was awarded for his medal "Solon". He was a pupil of Fischer and Kleiber at the Academy in 1817 where he learnt sculpture. In 1818 he made his way to Rome covering the distance on foot and spent six years on scholarship there. He worked in the workshop of Thorvaldsen, a Danish artist. He sent his first works ("Reposing Venus", "Portrait of Csokonai", "Sheperdess or the Beginning of Fine Crafts") to Hungary and they brought him several scholarships and, as a result, he became Canova's pupil for two years. Full of plans, Ferenczy returned to Hungary in 1824.

In the 1830s he modelled portraits ("Ürmélyi", "Rudnay", "Kazinczy", etc.), tombs ("Kulcsár", "Szánthó", "Fornay", etc.), altarpieces ("The Blessed" in Vaál, "The Martyrdom of St. Stephen" in Esztergom, etc.), some smaller memorials ("Károly Kisfalady" in Muzeumkert, Budapest) but he was never commissioned to create the equestrian statue of "King Matthias", his life-long ambition. His attempts to establish a school of sculpture proved to be unsuccessful. It was Ferenczy who discovered marble in Ruszicka. Travels and excavations cost his much of his fortune. He completed the "Statue of Kölcsey", his major work in 1846 and lived retired from the world in Rimaszombat from 1847 onwards. Only the statue of "Eurydike", his best in his opinion, and small clay statuettes kept him busy.

As an art student in Rome, he bought small renaissance bronzes, now among the treasures of the Museum of Fine Arts, e.g. an equestrian statue which art experts consider to be a work of Leonardo da Vinci's. Ferenczy, a typical representative of classicism, was best at character portrayal. His large scale plans never matched the artistic standards of his portraits and his "Sheperdess". His real significance rests rather in his mission to establish national art in Hungary.