19TH CENTURY, AFTER GIAMBOLOGNA

Although no early sources record this popular model as an invention of Giambologna's, the attribution is universally accepted on the basis of its similarity to the horse in the equestrian bronze of Cosimo I de' Medici in the Piazza della Signoria, Florence (see C. Avery, Giambologna - The Complete Sculpture, Oxford, 1987, nos. 38 and 132).