Mark Rosen's “Pietro Tacca’s Quattro Mori”
Mark Rosen: “Pietro Tacca’s Quattro Mori”
1. Thesis Statement: What is the thesis or underlying argument of the article
2. What does the monument consist of? Artist, medium, what figures, where was it located and why
3. What was the intended function of the sculptural group?
4. A good part of the article gives us the history of enslavement in Tuscany under the Medici. Discuss this section of the article. Who were the enslaved people? How did they live? What was the architecture/infrastructure of enslavement in Livorno? What “work” did they perform? What did you find important or new in this section?
5. Summarize the development of the monument.
6. What does Mark Rosen argue about the quattro mori figures?
7. What insights did you gain from reading this article, and did you have any questions?
8. Were there any English words that you needed to look up?
Reading Reflection
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Reading Reflection
The descriptions of enslaved Livorno people in Pietro Tacca's Quattro Mori were distinctive in exceeding their iconographic origins to solve current societal situations in Tuscany’s essential harbor. Rosen’s article, "Pietro Tacca's Quattro Mori," reflects on the conditions that enslaved people went through during the early Seicento Tuscany. The article also describes the Livorno port, the Bagno, Gallery Slavery, and the development of monuments.
The monument of the Four Moors is a typical symbol representing the Livorno city. The center of the work comprises a marble statue demonstrating Grand Duke Ferdinand I with the bronze prisoners at his feet, which characterizes the sculpture. The figures were constructed at two diverse times. The Ferdinand image was the first to be made and was located for an extended period before being moved to its current home. The reason for this sculpture was celebrative, as visible by how the Grand Duke is clothed in the uniform of the Grand Master of the Order of St. Stephan to liberate the sea from the fearsome pirates that would attack Livorno coast.
The I Quattro Mori’s sculptural group initially projected to represent the figure of Livorno’s noticeable in the existing devotedly vindicated slavery. As the city’s image from the 7th and 8th eras explicates, the Quattro Mari acted as the pivotal area of Livorno’s port, usually bounded by traders and existing and formerly enslaved people (36). Nevertheless, over the years, the sculpture group of I Quattro Mori has become a symbol of racism in Italy.
The busy Livorno port was a modern center for the slave trade in Italy. The town’s best common monument, “I Quattro Mori or The Four Moors," alarms guests to its noticeable role in the Mediterranean slave trade. It displays Ferdinando I de’ Medici suppressing four locked-up slaves of Asian and African roots. Similar to other monuments, I Quattro Mori was designed to program the humbling defeat of spiritual opponents by Catholic authorities.
The ...