Porcellino

''Il Porcellino'' (Italian "piglet") is the local Florentine nickname for the bronze fountain of a boar. The fountain figure was sculpted and cast by Baroque master Pietro Tacca (1577–1640) shortly before 1634, following a marble Italian copy of a Hellenistic marble original, at the time in the Grand Ducal collections and today on display in the classical section of the Uffizi Museum. The original, which was found in Rome and removed to Florence in the mid-16th century by the Medici, was associated from the time of its rediscovery with the Calydonian Boar of Greek myth.

Tacca's bronze, which has eclipsed the Roman marble that served as model, was originally intended for the Boboli Garden, then moved to the Mercato Nuovo in Florence, Italy; the fountain was placed originally facing east, in via Calimala, in front of the pharmacy that by association gained the name ''Farmacia del Cinghiale'' (Italian for "boar"). To gain more space for market traffic it was later moved to the side facing south, where it still stands as one of the most popular features for tourists. The present statue is a modern copy, cast in 1998 by Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry and replaced in 2008, while Tacca's bronze is sheltered in the new Museo Stefano Bardini in Palazzo Mozzi.

Visitors to ''Il Porcellino'' put a coin into the boar's gaping jaws, with the intent to let it fall through the underlying grating for good luck, and they rub the boar's snout to ensure a return to Florence, a tradition that the Scottish literary traveller Tobias Smollett already noted in 1766, which has kept the snout in a state of polished sheen while the rest of the boar's body has patinated to a dull brownish-green.

Copies

Copies of the sculpture can be found around the world. Some of the locations are:

;Australia
*Sydney Hospital, Sydney, NSW
;
;Belgium
*Royal Greenhouses of Laeken, Brussels
*Place de Bastogne, Koekelberg, Brussels
*Enghien Park, Enghien
* Antwerp Zoo
;
;Canada
*Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC
*Modern Languages building, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
*Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS

;Denmark
*Brotorvet, Holstebro, Paris
*Place Richelme, Aix-en-Provence

;Germany
*'' Sitzender Keiler'' (recreation by Martin Mayer) in the Borstei and in front of the Deutschen Jagd- und Fischereimuseum, Munich

;Italy
*Rispescia, Grosseto, Tuscany

;Japan
*Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture
*Uroko no Ie, Kitano Ijinkan, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture

;Norway
*Slemdal skole, Oslo

;Spain
*Parque de El Capricho, Madrid

;Sweden
*'' Lejonet och svinet'', Stockholm

;United Kingdom
*Derby Arboretum, Derby, England
*Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, England
*Leweston School, Dorset, England
*Castle Howard, North Yorkshire
*St Mary's College, Durham, Durham, England
*Kimmerghame House, Scottish Borders, Scotland
*Osborne House, Isle of Wight, England

;U.S.
*Arkansas
**University of Arkansas campus, Fayetteville
*California
**Viansa Winery, Sonoma
*Colorado
**Museum of Outdoor Arts, Englewood
*Connecticut
**Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford
*Delaware
**Delaware Museum of Natural History, Delaware
*Hawaii
**Honolulu, private collection
*Illinois,
** Riverview Inn & Suites, Rockford, IL
*Kansas
**The Villages Shopping Center, Prairie Village, KS
*Kentucky
**Louisville, private collection
*Louisiana
** R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport
*Missouri
**Country Club Plaza, N.W. Corner of 47th Street and Wornall Road, Kansas City
*New York
**Sutton Park, New York
**The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom amusement park at Queensbury. Just inside the entrance.
*North Carolina
**Mar Boar Restaurant Wallace, NC
*Pennsylvania
**Former Strawbridge & Clothier store, 801 Market Street, Philadelphia
*South Carolina
**Poinsett Plaza, Greenville
*Texas
**Plaza Skillman Shopping Center, Dallas
**Dallas Zoo, Dallas
**Rice Village, Houston
*Vermont
** Lyndon Center

In popular culture

The sculpture appears in literature as well as onscreen.

In literature

The ''Porcellino'' figures in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Bronze Hog" in ''A Poet's Bazaar''.

In film

''Il Porcellino'' appears in the 2001 film ''Hannibal'' when Chief Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) cleans his hands in the fountain.

The statue is also seen briefly in ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' (2002) as Harry Potter and Ron Weasley climb the Hogwarts staircase after crashing into the Whomping Willow, and again on the same staircase during the flashback scene where Tom Riddle speaks to Albus Dumbledore. It also appears in '' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows –Part 2'' (2011) in the Room of Requirement.

In 1962's film ''Light in the Piazza'', starring Olivia De Havilland, George Hamilton, and Yvette Mimieux, a young George Hamilton plays Fabrizio. After buying flowers for Yvette's character, Clara, he pats the boars snout for luck. Citation: ''Light in the Piazza''. Arthur Freed. MGM, February 7, 1962. Film.

Gallery

Image:PorcellinoFlorence.jpg, Well-worn snout of ''Il Porcellino'' in the Mercato Nuovo, Florence, Italy
Image:Florencja Il Porcelino RB.jpg, ''Il Porcellino'' in Florence
Image:Fontana del porcellino, base 04.JPG, Detail on the base
Image:Il Porcellino, Bronzesvinet, Brotorvet, Holstebro, Denmark.JPG, ''Il Porcellino'', Bronzesvinet at Brotorvet, Holstebro, Denmark
Image:SydneyHospital IlPorcellino gobeirne.jpg, A copy (1962) in Sydney
Image:Il_Porcellino_in_Munich.jpg, In front of the Deutsches Jagd- und Fischereimuseum in Munich, Germany
Image:UWaterloo Porcellino.jpg, On the University of Waterloo campus

References

External links

{{commons category, Porcellino

''Porcellino'' (Museum of Outdoor Arts)

Smithsonian Institution SIRIS Inventory

The Florentine - article » ''The Porcellino''

The legend of ''Porcellino''

Bronze sculptures
1630s sculptures
Pigs in art
Fountains in Florence
Outdoor sculptures in Florence