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For the Bartolommei, Ferdinando Tacca rebuilt the interior of the church of Santo Stefano al Ponte Vecchio, and participated in the works in the presbytery, decorated it with a double Corinthian order in pietra serena and executed the bas-relief of Stoning of St Stephen.
The Stoning of St Stephen reveals Tacca as the last important exponent of the elegant Mannerist style of Giambologna, handed down to him by his father. Certain theatrical elements in this work that enhance its picturesque and expressive qualities may have been prompted by his experience as a stage designer. The illusionism of the vista framed by the coulisses of the landscape, the swaying circle of executioners and the deus ex machina above are essentially theatrical in feeling; the figures are similarly characterized by a stage designer's dramatic sense. The charmingly sketchy drawing style of the low-relief background recalls Jacques Callot's distinctive vein of realism, while the groups of foreground figures project almost completely in the round, in the manner of Giambologna's relief of the Rape of the Sabines (1583; Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence). It has the effect of inviting the spectator to consider each group separately. This is the technique of a sculptor who is as much at home in the production of small bronze statuette groups as in the relief form.
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