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 works, on the left doors of the cathedral of Pisa (Adoration of the Magi, 1601). Upon the death of his master, he succeeded him (1609) in the post of “court sculptor” and completed various works, including the Monument to Ferdinand I in the piazza della Santissima Annunziata in Florence. Among his early works, besides the Equestrian Statue of Philip III of Spain in Madrid (1613), is probably also the popular bronze Porcellino in the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo in Florence, a replica of an ancient marble original in the Uffizi. Tacca’s masterpiece consists of 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. Close to Giambologna in style are also the two fountains in the piazza della Santissima Annunziata in Florence (installed only in 1641), which 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 Cappella dei Principi in S. Lorenzo in Florence, he worked (after 1634) on the Equestrian Statue of Philip IV of Spain in Madrid, daringly executed with the horse rearing on its hind legs (for this work Tacca took as his model a portrait of the king painted by Rubens), which was installed in 1642 by his son FERDINANDO (b. at Florence in 1619, d. there in 1686), his pupil and successor, who was also the author, among other works, of the fine Bacchino in the fountain in the piazza of Prato.