(b ?Florence; fl 1574–88). Italian sculptor. Documents suggest that, although primarily a sculptor in bronze, he may also have executed works in stone, ivory and silver. A Tuscan, he worked in Rome for Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici (later Ferdinando I, Grand Duke of Tuscany): his identity is sometimes confused with the humanist scholar Pietro Angeli da Barga, who was also a member of the Cardinal’s court at approximately the same time. The Cardinal, an avid collector of antique works, employed Pietro da Barga to create small-scale bronze copies of sculptures unobtainable in the original. The Medici Inventario di guardaroba lists Barga’s sculptures for the years 1574–88. Many of these statuettes ornamented the Cardinal’s studiolo and door-lintels at the Villa Medici on the Pincio Hill. Barga maintained a workshop near the villa: a Maestro Bastiano Tragittore cast the bronzes from Barga’s models. Among the works securely attributed to Barga are the reduced-size copies (Florence, Bargello) of the Laokoon (Rome, Vatican, Mus. Pio-Clementino), the Farnese Hercules (Naples, Mus. N. S. Martino) and Michelangelo’s Bacchus (Florence, Bargello). Each is a detailed representation (h. c. 30 cm), partially gilded, with a green patina. Although he concentrated on copying from the Antique, Barga also created replicas in various sizes of more contemporary sculptures, such as Michelangelo’s Dawn and Dusk (Florence, S Lorenzo, Sagrestia Nuova). The larger versions of these, and other statuette copies, went to decorate the studiolo of the painter Jacopo Zucchi. Barga followed in the tradition of Jacopo Alari Bonaccolsi (c. 1460–1528), who had created bronze replicas of antique sculptures for the Gonzagas at Mantua. Pietro’s works remained faithful to the full-size originals. Despite simplifying some of the pieces, he always included enough detail to simulate the prototype convincingly. His work represents a type of art much esteemed by Renaissance collectors, executed by a sculptor who combined a sensitive understanding of the Antique with considerable technical ability.