Ferdinando Tacca (Florence, 1619-1686) Moor with His Arms Behind His Back and One Knee Resting on a Barrel Terracotta 33 Cm High
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Ferdinando Tacca (Florence, 1619-1686) Moor with his arms behind his back and one knee resting on a barrel Terracotta 33 cm high Expertise by Sandro Bellesi In a perfect state of conservation, this work of outstanding stylistic merit offers a notably realist interpretation of a powerful male figure with Middle-Eastern features, his right knee resting on a barrel and his hands crossed behind his back. The almost nude figure, leaning forward in a forced position, is characterised by its extreme naturalism deriving from careful preparatory study. This is evident in the impeccable definition of the anatomy, which rigorously emphasises the figure’s vitality through the dynamic muscles, contracted tendons and nerves that palpitate beneath the skin. The energy transmitted by this figure, its face characterised by regular features framed by exotic “Turkish” whiskers, is also splendidly emphasised through the vitality of the gaze or rather through the profound, eloquent eyes. The figure’s anatomical characteristics and in particular the position of the body clearly recall the famous Quattro Mori executed in bronze by Pietro Tacca between 1623 and 1626 for the base of Giovanni Bandini’s Monument to Ferdinand I installed in 1599 on the quayside of Livorno harbour (for the monument and the figures on its base, see A. Brook, Pietro Tacca a Livorno. Il Monumento a Ferdinando I de Medici, Livorno, 2008). As archival and early sources reveal, for the execution of those figures (and the similar ones commissioned for the Monument to Henri IV of France for the Pont Neuf in Paris, subsequently executed by Pietro Francavilla) Tacca made various visits to prisons in Livorno in order to study some of the Saracen pirates captured by the Medici fleet during raids on the Tuscan coastline. In this regard there is information on a first trip by Tacca to Livorno as sculptor to the Grand Duchy after the death of Giambologna in 1608, followed by a second trip in 1617 that is extensively documented by the biographer of artists Filippo Baldinucci. The latter offers a detailed description of two Saracen prisoners named Ali Saletino and Morgiano whom Tacca drew from life (F. Baldinucci. Notizie de’professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, Florence, 5 vols., 1681-1728, ed. 1845-1847, II, pp.85-86). The fame of these works, considered by earlier and modern critics to be among the most significant achievements of Florentine 17th-century sculpture, became evident over time through the different interpretations of them produced by various Tuscan sculptors of the Seicento and Settecento. Ferdinando Tacca, son and heir of Pietro, made a table ornament, for example, that reproduces the Livorno monument (private collection, UK), comprising reduced-scale images of the four Moors conceived by his father (see A. Brook, op. cit., pp.73-74, figs. 52-56), while in the late Baroque period Giovanni Battista Foggini faithfully reproduced some of the figures to decorate the base of his small Equestrian Monument to the Emperor Joseph I now in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich (J. Montague in Gli ultimi Medici. Il tardo barocco a Firenze. 1670-1743, exhib cat., Detroit - Florence, Florence, 1974, pp.76-78, no. 40 a-b), reinterpreting them but also adding another figure that is now in a French private collection (A. Brook, op. cit., pp.77-78, figs. 59- 62). Foggini himself subsequently reformulated similar models, adapting one of his interpretations in gesso versions now in the Museo Giovanni Fattori in Livorno (A. Brook, op. cit., p.79, figs. 64-67) which have incorrectly been attributed by critics to Pietro Tacca (E. Bartolotti in Pietro Tacca. Carrara, la Toscana, le grandi corti europee, catalogue of the exhibition curated by F. Falletti (Carrara), Florence, 2007, pp. 122- 126, no. 1). In the second half of the 18th century Foggini’s models disseminated the fame of the Quattro Mori through reinterpretations in porcelain made at the recently founded Ginori Manufactory at Doccia, Sesto Fiorentino. The striking naturalism and stylistic characteristics of the present sculpture indicate that with regard to formal and technical considerations it should be considered a work by Ferdinando Tacca, an artist who, like his father Pietro, specialised exclusively in the different techniques of bronze sculpture and bronze casting, maintaining the tradition of the small and medium format intended for patrons in Florence and at the principal European courts. Ferdinando Tacca is known for his elegant compositions which in some cases represent an interesting connection between the legacy of Tuscan sculpture of the early Seicento (still associated with the models of Giambologna and his studio) and the first move towards the Baroque, marking an interesting prelude to Giovanni Battista Foggini’s innovations in Tuscan sculpture of the late century. The originality of the description of the present figure, modelled in terracotta, which is comparable in type to the Livorno bronzes but conceived ex novo, suggests that Ferdinando could have studied a Muslim prisoner in the city’s gaols or have used a model that he had previously drawn. In this respect it should be remembered (as noted above) that in 1608 Pietro Tacca made his first visit to the prison in Livorno to study some of the Saracen prisoners, of which he then made a now unidentified wax model (E. Bartolotti in Pietro Tacca, op. cit., 2007, p.122). It is likely that this model, which remained in his workshop, was copied various times by the young Ferdinando during his apprenticeship. Alert and open to Tuscan innovations of the mid-17th century, here Tacca reveals contact with the work of the brothers Domenico and Giovanni Battista Pieratti, particularly with regard to the fluid representation of the drapery falling onto the ground and the almost rotating effect of the figure. The latter anticipates the turning poses characteristic of the early Baroque evident (albeit in a superficial manner) in the work of another important Florentine bronze sculptor of this period, Giovanni Francesco Susini. Tacca’s most typical style and approach are evident in the powerful features of this figure’s face, which offer significant comparisons with figures such as the Moors and the Grand Duke present on the above-mentioned table decoration in a UK private collection, as well as with the colossal gilt-bronze statue of Ferdinand I de’Medici in the Medici Chapel, begun by Pietro in the 1630s but completed by his son in 1644 (P. Torriti, Pietro Tacca da Carrara, Genoa, 1975, p. 45). Fig.1: Pietro Tacca, Monument to Ferdinando I, Livorno .