Samson Slaying a Philistine

Giambologna was a Flemish sculptor who settled in Florence and became the leading artist of the Medici court after Michelangelo's death. Look at how the two bodies balance on a base that is almost nothing, the Philistine's back and Samson's foot, so that the whole mass seems to float. The marble is polished to a smooth gleam on the skin and left rougher in the hair and the drapery. The pose is borrowed from a design by Michelangelo for a Samson group that was never carved, and Giambologna took the idea further, tightening the twist and lifting the weight into the air.

The group was made for a fountain in Florence for Francesco de Medici and was given by his successor to the Duke of Lerma in Spain in 1601. It stood in Valladolid and then in Madrid until 1623, when the Spanish king presented it to Charles, Prince of Wales, on his failed visit to court the Infanta. From then on it passed between English gardens and stood outdoors for centuries, weathering slowly. The museum acquired it in 1954. It is one of the few Renaissance masterpieces to have arrived in England as a royal gift rather than a purchase.

Did You Know? The sculpture arrived in England in 1623 as a diplomatic present to the future Charles the First, after his secret trip to Madrid to woo a Spanish princess ended in failure.