River God. Pietro Tacca (Carrara, 1577-Florence, 1640) Workshop. Bronze with a translucent reddish patina. Provenance: Christie's, Rome, November 24-25, 1987, lot 141. Private collection, Lombardy

37 x 25 x 28 cm

The river deity presented here depicts a powerful, bearded figure with a Herculean body. This is the iconography traditionally assigned to river representations, imagined, of ancient origin, but always powerful.

The muscular old man is shown sitting in a contorted position and holding a jar facing downwards, from which symbolically flows the water that generates the river.

This type of bronze has been attributed by Charles Avery to Pietro Tacca, successor to Giambologna's foundry and heir to all his models. Among these is a terracotta River God now in the Bargello Museum, attributed to Tribolo but probably by Giambologna, from whom Tacca would have obtained this type of casting.

Our sculpture falls into this typology and presents, in addition to a great quality of execution, a splendid transparent reddish patina, typical of the best Tuscan castings of the period.

Christie's provenance already attributed it to a 17th-century Tuscan founder.