On the death of Giambologna in 1616, Pietro Tacca (1577-1640) was granted sole use of the artist's house and studio by Cosimo II of Florence, who was continuing his family's tradition of attracting the greatest artists of the day to his Court.
Tacca produced two fountains in about 1620 to adorn the square in front of Brunelleschi's Ospedale degli Innocenti, the bronze model in this lot being of one of them. The original fountain was shipped to the United States in 1920 and is currently in the grounds of the University of Minnesota.
Milanese by birth, Giovanni Pandiani (d. 1879) studied at the Accademia di Brera under Pompeo Marchesi. Despite showing early signs of talent whilst at the Brera, it was not until 1846 that Pandiani really proved himself with the Bartolini-inspired work entitled Egle, which was shown at the Brera and is now at the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan. He was most famed though for a figure in marble of General Garibaldi. He seems to have spent most of his working life in Milan though, and it is not clear when he was inspired to cast his reproduction of Tacca's Florentine fountain.