An Italian bronze figure of Mercury, after Giambologna (1529-1608), 17th/18th century, Florence

Giambologna's Mercury is perhaps the most famous sculpture in the artist's oeuvre and is one of the most enduring images of the Italian late Renaissance: lifting the human form as close to flight as is technically possible, and encouraging the viewer to circle completely around, it represents a momentous development in the history of sculpture.  The prime version was commissioned in 1564 by Cosimo I to be sent as a diplomatic gift to Emperor Maximillian II, and was the size of a fifteen-year-old youth.  Although this has not survived, the larger example in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence followed soon after.  Giambologna also produced later variations, including a more slender vertical version.  The present example is a well modeled and finished reduction conforming  most closely to the Bargello version.

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, Giambologna, 1529-1608, Sculptor to the Medici (exh. cat.), Edinburgh, London, and Vienna, 1978, nos. 33-35, pp. 83-88