Un disegno di Giambologna per il Monumento dei Quattro Mori di Livorno

This paper proposes an attribution to Giambologna for a drawing in the Galleria Estense of Modena, previously ascribed to Giovanni Battista Codibue. As Adolfo Venturi already suggested, it can be considered a design for the monument to Ferdinando I de’ Medici in Livorno. Its appearance, which is different and more decorated than the version executed, allows proposing that the commission for the basement with the ‘Four Moors’ followed the victory over Muslim pirates in 1602. On the other hand, the similarities with other drawings since long thought to be by Giambologna permits establishing the sculptor’s graphic oeuvre with more security. Another sheet, kept in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe of the Gallerie degli Uffizi, is here discussed as a copy from a project by Giambologna for two monumental columns, helping to clarify his contribution to the formulation of the sovereign monument in the Europe of incipient absolutism.