Monumento Dei Quattro Mori (Monument of the Four Moors), Livorno

There was a sculptural fad in Italy in the 17th century that featured figures of prisoners and slaves, especially African slaves. The Four Moors statues in Livorno appear trendy that way. In 1617 Cosimo II commissioned Mannerist and Baroque sculptor Pietro Tacca to create a monument to Cosimo's father, Ferdinando I.

These four statues were meant to celebrate Roman aristocrat and general Marcantonio Colonna's role in the defeat of the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571. The joke was on Marcantonio. While he was sinking the Ottoman navy, the Ottoman army was sacking Cyprus.

Dressed as a Knight of San Stefano, Ferdinando stands on a high square pedestal in Micheli Square. A prisoner is chained at each corner of the base. One of them is African, perhaps a slave.

The Four Moors feature the four corners of the world. They also seem to tell the Medici's involvement in the slave trades in West Africa in the 17th century. Fernando II, the grandson of Fernando I, oversaw the monument's completion in 1626.