Mars, Roman god of war

The figure of the god of war is captured mid-stride, sword in hand, with head and torso turned, as if catching sight of the viewer and turning towards them.

The Mars is one of the relatively few small bronzes attributed to Giambologna and his workshop for which a contemporary example by Giambologna himself can be identified (as opposed to later castings by Antonio Susini). Now in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, an inventory from 1587 notes the arrival of a ‘brass cast portrait of Mars, sent by Giovanni Bologna to His Grace the Elector’ — Christian I, Elector of Saxony (1560–1592). As with many others of Giambologna’s works, small castings from his pupil and successor Antonio Susini further popularised the subject, and castings of various quality continued to be issued in subsequent centuries.

The Marinelli foundry is one of the last great bronze foundries left in Italy, with a huge proprietary inventory of plaster casts made directly from original models.