Clarisse Grosseto
Fondazione Grosseto Cultura
List

#417 • Ceremonial Vase

Author

Pietro Tacca

Biography

(Carrara 1577 - 1640)

Date

Early 17th century

Technique

Stucco

Size

Height 120 cm

Description:

Pietro Tacca trained in Giambologna's workshop where he was able to distinguish himself as a favorite pupil. He put his art at the service of the Medici power and politics in Florence, for whom this work was likely made.
 
On the occasion of the wedding of Cosimo II and Maria Magdalena of Austria, superb apparatuses were prepared, and processions were organized through the city streets, which were decked out with evocative scenery.
 
The ceremonial vase, made of low-quality material and with an execution that indicates particular rapidity, seems to suggest a use related to the ephemeral world of these apparatuses.
 
It transpires the taste of the traditional Florentine court with a visionary language and bizarre manner that mark Tacca's entire artistic career.