TACCA, PIETRO. - Sculptor and architect, b. at Carrara on 6 Sept. 1577, d. at Florence on 26 Oct. 1640.
Having settled in Florence in 1592, he entered the school of Giambologna, under whose direction he collaborated, among other things, on the left doors of the cathedral of Pisa (Adoration of the Magi, 1601). On the master's death, he succeeded him (1609) in the post of "court statuary" and completed various of his works, among others the Monument to Ferdinand I in the piazza della S.ma Annunziata in Florence. Among his youthful works, besides the Equestrian Statue of Philip III of Spain in Madrid (1613), the popular bronze Porcellino in the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo in Florence, a replica of an ancient marble original in the Uffizi, should probably also be counted. T.'s masterpiece are the Four Moors placed (1623 and 1625) on the base of the Monument to Ferdinand I erected by Bandini at Livorno, which already foreshadow the Baroque. T. is also close to Giambologna in the taste of the two fountains in the piazza della S.ma Annunziata in Florence (put in place only in 1641) that had been commissioned from him for Livorno. After executing the models for the colossal gilded bronze statues of Ferdinand I and Cosimo II for the chapel of the Princes in S. Lorenzo in Florence, he worked (after 1634) on the Equestrian Monument of Philip IV of Spain (Madrid), boldly carried out with the horse rearing on its hind legs (for this work T. had in mind a portrait of that king painted by Rubens), which was put in place in 1642 by his son FERDINANDO (b. at Florence in 1619, d. there in 1686), his pupil and continuator, author, among other things, of the fine Bacchino of the fountain in the piazza of Prato.
Bibliography2 works
Amalia Mezzetti