Allegory of Prince Francesco I de Medici

Giambologna’s Allegory of Francesco I de’ Medici (now in the Prado, Madrid) responded to a Medici family tragedy. The vagueness of the subject-matter, though, allowed it to resonate beyond the Florentine context, and Cosimo I de’ Medici had Giambologna and his assistants produce a bronze copy for Emperor Maximilian II in 1564. The bronze is far more hard-edged than the alabaster, a result of the careful reworking it underwent at the hand of a goldsmith after it was cast.