Galloping Horse

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 17

Inventory

PV 09292

Material and technique

Bronze, reddish glossy varnish and traces of black lacquer

Author

Ferdinando Tacca (1619-1686)

Dating

c. 1650

Dimensions

23 x 23 x 7 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

The Galloping Horse and the Rearing Horse came to Palazzo Venezia from the Barsanti Collection but were originally held at the Palazzo Chigi in Rome. In literature on the bronzes, a comparison has frequently been made with an almost identical pair of horses that formed part of the collection of Robert von Mendelsohn in Berlin in 1912. Santangelo noted the comparison and attributed the two Palazzo Venezia bronzes to Pietro Tacca. The attribution was shared by the curators of three different catalogues for the exhibition on Italian Renaissance bronzes in 1961-62, held in London, Amsterdam and Florence. But when the two bronzes were included in the exhibition Giambologna 1529-1608: Sculptor to the Medici, in 1978-79, held in Edinburgh, London and Vienna, some doubts were raised over the attribution.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), Bergamo 1922, nos. 65-68 p. 95; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 53; C. Avery, Giambologna: an exhibition of sculpture by the master and his followers; from the collection of Michael Hall, exh. cat., New York 1998, no. 128, pp. 204-207; K. Zock, European sculpture, exh. cat., New York-Prato 2002, no. 16, pp. 204-207; P. Cannata in M. G. Barberini - M. S. Sconci (eds.), Guida al Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, Roma 2009, no. 70 p. 71.