The phenomenal range and popularity of the statuettes of
Giambologna provided his followers with a ready source of
income and an incentive to continue the tradition. Pietro
Tacca's contribution is unclear, but he may have been responsible
for alternative compositions of the Labours of Hercules
(e.g. Chicago, IL, A. Inst.), on a larger scale than his
master's original series; Tacca's son Ferdinando Tacca branched
away from Giambologna's style, making a series of groups
with two figures to be seen primarily from the front, rather
than in the round. Likewise, Antonio Susini was succeeded
by his nephew Francesco Susini, who, apart from reusing
the old piece-moulds to supply the continuing demand for
Giambologna's subjects, invented several important new compositions,
notably a pair depicting Venus and Cupid (Paris, Louvre;
Vaduz, Samml. Liechtenstein) and in 1626 his dramatic masterpiece,
the Rape of Helen (versions, Dresden, Skulpsamml.; Malibu,
CA, Getty Mus.).
The advent of the Baroque in the persons of Bernini and
Algardi gave rise to a new source of statuettes, the original
working models of a sculptor, for these might be preserved
by casting into bronze, thus disseminating knowledge of
their monumental commissions and providing a subsidiary
source of income. Bernini's monument for Countess Matilda
(Rome, St Peter's) and Algardi's Virgin and Child (New York,
A. Gregory priv. col.) were so reproduced, alongside their
designs for crucifixes and saints. The surfaces of such
statuettes deliberately tended to retain the look of spontaneous
modelling and were not chased as highly as Florentine examples.
While nearly all of the Italian Baroque sculptors of the
17th century made some statuettes, none became a specialist,
and it seems that collectors' tastes may have been altering.
