Jacopo Sansovino (?)
Knight Stepping on the Conquered,c. 1506-1510, terracotta with traces of gilding
This terracotta group holds a truly eminent place in world of sixteenth-century Italian sculpture. The original gilding of the piece, applied to imitate the gleaming effects of a bronze statue, has survived only in a few scattered traces, on a thin preparatory layer of ochre colour.
The refinement of the modelling leads experts to believe that the sculpture is not a trial piece for a later casting, but is itself an autonomous work destined for display in a Renaissance mansion. The composition reveals the artist’s familiarity with Leonardo da Vinci’s studies for his Sforza Monument, and in the figure of the vanquished man, one can detect a reference to Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari. Such derivations from Leonardo have led past scholars to assign the execution of the terracotta to Giovanni Francesco Rustici. Recent criticism, noting the lyricism of the figure’s poses, tends to attribute the work to Jacopo Sansovino, or to a workshop whose most gifted collaborator was Sansovino.
