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Lot Essay
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d.1609) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I. Ferdinando was the fifth son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonora di Toledo (1519-62), the daughter of Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo, the Spanish viceroy of Naples.
The present centrepiece is a reduction with minor variations of a monument executed in marble and bronze of Ferdinando I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the port of Livorno. The marble portrait of the Grand Duke was carved at the end of the 16th century by Giovanni Bandini, but the monument is perhaps best known for the four bronze slaves around the pedestal which were executed by Pietro Tacca in the early 17th century and installed by 1626. Tacca was one of the most gifted of Giambologna's assistants and after the former's death in 1608 Tacca succeeded him as court sculptor to the Medici. The Monument of the Four Slaves, as it is usually known, was one of the commissions which dominated the second half of Tacca's career.
The present centrepiece is a reduction with minor variations of a monument executed in marble and bronze of Ferdinando I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the port of Livorno. The marble portrait of the Grand Duke was carved at the end of the 16th century by Giovanni Bandini, but the monument is perhaps best known for the four bronze slaves around the pedestal which were executed by Pietro Tacca in the early 17th century and installed by 1626. Tacca was one of the most gifted of Giambologna's assistants and after the former's death in 1608 Tacca succeeded him as court sculptor to the Medici. The Monument of the Four Slaves, as it is usually known, was one of the commissions which dominated the second half of Tacca's career.