A BRONZE FIGURE OF A COWHERD LEANING ON HIS STAFF

In 1601 a silver version of the present composition was one of four silver statuettes loaned from the Galleria of the Uffizi to Antonio Susini (died 1624), who was the most celebrated assistant of Giambologna (1529-1608), Court Sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany. In the inventory made of Benedetto Gondi’s collection in Florence on 4 November 1609, there is mention of ‘Un pastorino’, and it is given to Giambologna. These – and other- early documentary references - have led to the general acceptance of the Peasant Resting on his Staff as a model created by Giambologna. The model recalls Giambologna’s Flemish origin and training, upon which he may also have drawn when asked to create many of the decorations for the gardens and grounds of Francesco de’ Medici’s villa at Pratolino in the late 1570s. It combines a charming affection for rural life with the quality expected of a bronze made in the courtly milieu of renaissance Florence.