Flying Mercury (Giambologna)

A bronze figure of the Roman god Mercury by the Flemish-born sculptor Giambologna, balanced on his left toes atop a puff of breath from Zephyrus, the wind god, his body spiraling upward as his right hand points toward the heavens. He wears his traditional attributes, the winged sandals, the winged petasos and the caduceus staff, and the pose creates a sustained illusion of weightless flight best appreciated by walking around the figure. Giambologna had earlier begun an unfinished model of the subject for the papal vice-legate Pier Donato Cesi in the early 1560s, now held in Bologna, before casting this fuller version around 1578 to 1580 for Cardinal Ferdinando I de' Medici, who set it atop a fountain at the entrance stair of the Villa Medici in Rome. It moved to the Uffizi's Hall of Modern Bronzes in 1780 and to the Bargello in 1865. Giambologna's workshop went on to cast further versions, including one presented to King Henry IV of France, now in the Louvre, and numerous smaller copies sold across Europe. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/