Horse

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 17

Inventory

PV 09294

Material and technique

Bronze, brown patina

Author

Pietro Tacca (1577-1640)

Dating

Early 17th century

Dimensions

20 x 21 x 5.5 cm.

Origin

Barsanti Collection (1934)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This bronze was attributed to Pietro Tacca by Pollak, and to Adriaen de Vries by Santangelo. While Giambologna’s influence is clear there is no evident mark of the latter’s “galloping horse” bronzes, some of which were used as models for equestrian monuments. Pietro Tacca, who was both Giambologna’s pupil and his main assistant, was a protagonist in the new period of Florentine sculpture that began with Giambologna’s equestrian monument for Cosimo de’ Medici (1587-98). A talented founder and sculptor, Tacca executed numerous bronze horses, including models for his four equestrian monuments, even though the older models were conceived by Giambologna. The workmanship of the mane and the tail here is similar to that in the monuments to Ferdinand I de’ Medici and Philip III of Spain and a very similar horse is held at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, almost a mirror image of the equestrian statue of Cosimo I, executed between 1587 and 1595. The work was originally attributed to the circle of Adriaen de Vries, and then thought to be the work of an artist from the south of the low countries, before finally being recognized as a bronze by Pietro Tacca.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

L. Pollak, Raccolta Alfredo Barsanti (Trecento-Settecento), Bergamo 1922, no. 67, p. 98; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 51; M. Verber, From Vulcan's forge: bronzes from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1450 - 1800, London 2005, no. 23 pp. 82-83; P. Cannata, in M. G. Barberini - M. S. Sconci (eds.), Guida al Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome 2009, no. 67, p. 70.