ATTRIBUTED TO FERDINANDO TACCA (ITALIAN, 1619-1686), ITALIAN, 17TH CENTURY

There is remarkably little documented bronze sculpture by Ferdinando Tacca, perhaps due to the reduced patronage provided by the Medici Grand Dukes in the mid-17th century. After Giambologna's death in 1608, his assistant Pietro Tacca took over as court sculptor to the Grand Dukes until his own passing in 1640 when the role went to his son Ferdinando. Ferdinando inherited Giambologna's workshop and foundry in the Borgo Pinti and he can be considered Giambologna's artistic heir, carrying on the elegant mannerist style of late 16th century Florence well into the mid-17th century. Today, there are relatively few documented works by Ferdinando from which to construct a reliable oeuvre, however one of his most important commissions was for the bronze relief of the Martyrdom of St. Stephen in Santo Stefano al Ponte, Florence.

A. Radcliffe, in his paper 'Ferdinando Tacca, the missing link in Florentine Baroque bronzes' (in Kunst des Barock in der Toskana, Munich, 1976), attributes a number of small bronze groups to Tacca based on their similarity to the Martyrdom relief. In looking at Radcliffe's assessment of both these bronzes and the relief, we can attribute the present bronze to Tacca as well. The first notable similarity is in the finishing of the rockwork base. The artist's signature manner of finishing his bases with a series of swirling patterns of punched trails is evident on the present example.

Another model of St. John the Baptist was part of the Untermyer Collection and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (no. 64.101.1467). It is missing its cross and the punching on the base is slightly more vigorous, and these differences would be expected in any hand-finished work, but it is nearly identical in all other respects.