Lot 181: After Pietro Tacca , and attributable to Giovanni Battista Foggini

After Pietro Tacca (1577 ~ 1640), and attributable to Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652 ~ 1725), a sculpted white marble model of a Moorish slave, early 18th century, after one of the four slaves at the foot of Baccio Bandinelli's statue of Ferdinand I de' Medici at Livorno (1620 ~ 24), portrayed as nude but for drapery across his loins and seated on a rock outcrop, his head turned to dexter, the torso with pronounced musculature, his arms tied behind him, 47cm high Tacca was commissioned to create various public works for the Medici, including his group of four slaves which adorn Bandinelli's monument in the Piazza della Darsena, Livorno. More precisely, the slaves probably represent captured Barbary corsairs or Ottoman pirates, in celebration of successful naval actions conducted by the Order of Saint Stephen, of which the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici was Grand Master Later, reduced scale bronze adaptations were made by Foggini and these were to be the basis of reproductions for connoisseurs into the 18th century. Indeed the Foggini attribution was firmly made by Cyril Humphris and is stated in the 1981 sales invoice for this piece Provenance: Property from the Estates of J W T & S M F Tapp, Southborough House, Surbiton Purchased Cyril Humphris, 23 Old, Bond Street, London, 15 May 1981, £2,500