Ebonized wood base with inclusion of a circular "pietra paesina" plaque: 21x15.5x15.5 cm. Sword blade replaced.

Comparative literature: A. Radcliffe and C. Avery (eds.), "Giambologna 1529-1608: Sculptor to the Medici", exhibition catalogue, Royal Scottish Museum Edinburgh, Victoria and Albert Museum London, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, 1978 -1979, p. 100, No. 49;
C. Avery, "Soldani's mythological bronzes and his British clientele", Sculpture Journal, XIV, 2005, pp. 8-29, pl. 12.

This model, depicting an executioner holding a sword in his right hand and the head of St. John the Baptist in his left, represents a thematic variant (with the addition of the saint's head) of the famous "Mars" or "Gladiator" by Giambologna , one of the most iconic sculptural creations of the Flemish artist, the first version of which is probably datable to 1560's, if we consider that a 1575 inventory of the Guardaroba of Cardinal Ferdinando de'Medici, published by Giacomo de Nicola ( G. de Nicola, "Notes on the National Museum of Florence-II. A Series of Small Bronzes by Pietro da Barga" in "The Burlington Magazines", 1916, pp. 362-365), already lists a series of bronzes after Giambologna, by Pietro da Barga. The first direct documentation, however, remains that of the inventory of the Dresden Kunstkammer of 1587, which concerns the "Mars" donated directly by the artist to the Elector of Saxony Christian I. If the genesis of this famous model starts from afar, perhaps directly from the inspiration that Giambologna received from the vision of Bartolomeo Ammannati's "Mars Gradivus" (1559-1560) today in the Gallerie degli Uffizi, our model is a variant that can be temporally placed within the last group of Florentine "heirs" of the master of Douai, represented mainly by Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi (1656-1740): the best known and highest quality model of the "Executioner", preserved at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin (n ° 8122) is attributed to him, a bronze to which our sculpture can be compared for the high quality surface finish and for the characteristically chiseled features of the head, as well as for the golden-reddish patina that highlights its Florentine origin. Among the other versions of the same model, attributed to Soldani Benzi or to his workshop, see one that passed on the English auction market in 2016.