This satue is placed in the Piazza Santissima Annunziata, in it Ferdinand I de 'Medici is represented in a size of about 30% to 40% the real size and is is mounted on a horse wearing noble clothes and with a scepter in the right hand. The satue was made in 1608 by Giambologna, it is made of bronze and is on top of a stone pedestal.
Statua equestre di Ferdinando I de' Medici"It is one of the last works by Giambologna , commissioned after the sculptor had achieved great international popularity with its equestrian statues , required by the major European rulers and started just by a committee of Ferdinand I , the equestrian statue of Cosimo I, in the square della Signoria.
The statue was completed by the pupil of Giambologna , Pietro Tacca , in 1608 , after the death of the master.
The work was made ??with the bronze coming from the guns of the Turkish galleys , which were won by the Knights of the Military Order of St. Stephen , built to fight the pirates who infested the Mediterranean on the initiative of the Medici family . In this memory , the belt girth of the horse was engraved : "De' metalli rapiti al fero Trace"."
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Ferdinand I de 'Medici"Ferdinando was the fifth son (the third surviving at the time of his birth) of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonora di Toledo, the daughter of Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo, the Spanish viceroy of Naples.
He was made a Cardinal in 1562 at the age of 14 but was never ordained into the priesthood. At Rome, he proved an able administrator. He founded the Villa Medici in Rome and acquired many works of art (including the Medici lions), which he then brought back to Florence with him.
When his brother Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany died in 1587, Ferdinando succeeded as Grand Duke at the age of 38.
In many ways, Ferdinando was the opposite of his brother who preceded him. Approachable and generous, he set out to rule mildly. He re-established the justice system and was genuinely concerned about the welfare of his subjects. During his reign, Tuscany revived and regained the independence his brother had given up.
Ferdinando fostered commerce and gained great wealth through the Medici banks, which were established in all the major cities of Europe. He enacted an edict of tolerance for Jews and heretics,[1] and Livorno became a haven for Spanish Jews as well as other persecuted foreigners. He established the Medici Oriental Press (Typographia Medicea), which published numerous books in the Arabic script.
He improved the harbor Cosimo I had built and diverted part of the flow of the Arno River into a canal called the Naviglio, which aided commerce between Florence and Pisa. He fostered an irrigation project in the Val di Chiana, which allowed the flatlands around Pisa and Fucecchio and in the Val di Nievole to be cultivated."
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