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Equestrian monuments to honour heroes were established well before the seventeenth century Giambologna and his workshop gave such monuments an international vogue during the late sixteenth century; Francesco Mochi and Giambologna's follower Pietro Tacca produced new variants on this theme in the following century.
In 1608 Giambologna died and left his workshop to Tacca, who completed a conventional mounted statue of the Spanish king, Philip III, some years before receiving a second commission from Philip IV in 1634. The bronze group was to be based upon an equestrian portrait of the king by Rubens. The work amply confirmed the sculptor's ability: a vast warhorse, teeth bared and nostrils flaring, rears on its hind legs, only to be reined in effortlessly by the King. Philip sits bolt upright and remains completely passive, with his right arm extended to display his baton of command, as he was reportedly depicted in the lost painting by Rubens.
Tacca's work was a superb image of political propaganda as well as being a technical feat in terms of maintaining the equilibrium of horse and rider. It also set a standard for later equestrian monuments by Coysevox and Falconet.
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