Giambologna

Giambologna (1529–1608) was a Fleming, born Jean Boulogne, who came to Italy and was inspired by Michelangelo, although he quickly found his own path, with his talent for depicting movement and special taste for the outlandish. One of the great masters of Mannerist virtuosity, he became the court sculptor to the Medici after 1567; in fact they never allowed him to leave the city out of fear that some other ruler might pinch him.

His most prominent works in Florence are the statues of the Rape of the Sabine Women (1574), a work that he completed, challenged (like Michelangelo and his David by a single block of marble) before it had a name and the Hercules Fighting the Centur Nessos, both in Loggia dei Lanzi.

He was famous for his statues of Venus (there's one in the Villa della Petraia) and another in the Boboli Gardens, and his fountains, including the massive one of the Giant Appennino at Pratolino.