PIETRO TACCA (Carrara, 1577- Firenze, 1640), God River

Black coated bronze with greenish traces. 40 x 34 x 35 cm

The fluvial deity presented here depicts a powerful bearded figure with a Herculean body. This is the traditional iconography assigned to river representations, imagined to be of ancient origin, but still powerful.
The old culturist is shown as seated in a twisted position and holding a downward-facing jar, from which symbolically the water that generates the river flows out.

This important bronze has been studied by Dr. Charles Avery, a leading international expert of Giambologna and his school, and attributed to Pietro Tacca. (see document attached)

The subject repeats a terracotta sketch now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, traditionally attributed to Tribolo, but which Avery thinks is a work of Giambologna.

Pietro Tacca, as the continuator and heir of Giambologna's grand ducal foundry, is said to have inherited all of the master's sketches, including the river deity now in the Bargello. According to Avery, he would have drawn numerous castings from these sketches, including ours. Specifically, he would have taken Giambologna's idea by placing it on a high striated rocky base, a practice now also established in other bronzes surely attributed to Tacca.

Few versions of this evocative composition exist, among which Avery notes the one belonging to Count Stroganoff (1911), the one belonging to Maurice de Rothschild, and the one belonging to Yves Saint Laurent and sold at Christie's auction in 2009.
I would add a model passed at auction in Italy in 2018 mutilated of one arm.