Massimiliano Soldani Benzi

(Montevarchi, 1656 - Montevarchi, 1740)

School of

The sculpture reproduces a famous marble from the 1st century AD that was part of the Medici collection (now in the Uffizi Museum in Florence).

Soldani Benzi produced bronze copies of classical sculptures from the Medici collection. His sculpture of the satyr after Medici marble was made in almost life-size dimensions for the Liechtenstein princes and, although its attribution has been debated, it is still preserved in the Vaduz collection.

Soldani's foundry produced also smaller copies that are now at the center of attribution disputes. The replicas are characterised by the absence of the trunk against which, in the original version, the satyr is leaning, and by a reddish transparent patina typical of the old Tuscan productions – two characteristics also of this object.