Kestrel

An extension of Giambologna’s repertory in bronze was a commission in 1567 for a series of life-size - and extremely life-like - figures of birds (e.g. Turkey, Eagle, Kestrel; all Florence, Bargello) to decorate a grotto at the Medicean Villa di Castello. For these he invented an ‘impressionistic’ rendering in the original wax of plumage, which was faithfully translated by skilful casting into the final bronze versions. He treated similarly the fur of some Monkeys, which he made to go in niches under the fountain basin that he carved as a mounting for his earlier marble group of Samson.

Giambologna’s vivacious and sympathetic studies of birds and animals, from the life, pointed the way for the French school of ‘animaliers’ in the 19th century.