Here’s an eerie image taken in Florence on a stormy day.

I love this sculpture and its matching partner created by Pietro Tacca (1577-1640) and now installed in this major piazza in the center of Florence.

Tacca was born in Carrara; he joined Giambologna’s Florentine atelier in 1592. Tacca took over the workshop of his master upon the elder sculptor’s death in 1608. He finished a number of Giambologna’s incomplete projects and succeeded him almost immediately as the court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

These bronze fountains were originally destined for Livorno. Fortunately for Florence, they were installed here instead.  Created in the Mannerist style, Tacca was inspired by Flemish goldsmith’s work, from which he borrowed the grotesque masks and shellwork textures.

 

 

 

 

 

In the center of this grand piazza stands this equestrian statue:

It is Giambologna’s equestrian bronze of Ferdinando I de’ Medici (Grand Duke of Tuscany), which was completed by his student and assistant, Tacca.

Tacca also contributed the bas-relief panels on the base for Giambologna’s equestrian statue of Cosimo de’ Medici in the Piazza della Signoria.