Porcellino Explained

(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,[1] 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.[2]

Tacca's bronze, which has eclipsed the Roman marble that served as model,[3] 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.[4]

Visitors to 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,[5] 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
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Norway
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
U.S.

In popular culture

The sculpture appears in literature as well as onscreen.

In literature

The Italian: Porcellino figures in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Bronze Hog" in A Poet's Bazaar.[16]

In film

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 the 1962 film Light in the Piazza, Fabrizio (George Hamilton) pats the boar's snout for luck after buying flowers.

External links

Notes and References

  1. The commission, from Cosimo II de' Medici, dated to 1621 (Piero Torriti, Pietro Tacca da Carrara, 1975:39, noted in Haskell and Penny).
  2. Book: Haskell . Francis . Penny. Nicholas . Taste and the Antique : the Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900 . Yale University Press . New Haven . 1981 . 0-300-02913-6 . 6863945.
  3. Haskell and Penny.
  4. Web site: Ground Floor (#6). Museo Stefano Bardini. https://web.archive.org/web/20200122123125/http://museicivicifiorentini.comune.fi.it/en/bardini/visitamuseo. 2020-01-22. 2020-01-29. dead.
  5. Smollett, Travels Through France and Italy, 1766, Letter XXVIII, noted in Haskell and Penny.
  6. Web site: Il Porcellino . Shirley Fitzgerald . 2008 . Dictionary of Sydney . Dictionary of Sydney Trust . 18 February 2013.
  7. Web site: Kunst. nl. Antwerp Zoo. June 2, 2021.
  8. Web site: Celebrating the Boar. Special Collections & Archives. 6 March 2015. University of Waterloo Library. November 7, 2019.
  9. Web site: Jagd und Fischerei Museum München . 2009-11-17 . 2002-01-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20020119220758/http://www.jagd-fischerei-museum.de/ . dead .
  10. Web site: Kitano-cho Ijinkan: Sightseeing Itinerary for Kobe's Old Quarter | LIVE JAPAN travel guide .
  11. Web site: Statuary at St Mary's College, Durham . 2016-05-05 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160505102928/http://www.andythornton.com/en-UK/news_articles/54-statuary-at-st-mary-s-college-durham . 2016-05-05 .
  12. Web site: Picture Perfect Places . Viansa Winery . 23 August 2013 . 27 August 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130827105349/http://www.viansa.com/Picture-Perfect-Places . dead .
  13. Web site: Il Porcellino - Manhattan, NY . 12 January 2008 . 23 August 2013.
  14. Web site: Il Porcellino - Lyndon Center, Vermont . 23 August 2013 . 7 August 2008.
  15. Web site: Stone Tower Winery .
  16. Translated by Charles Beckwith, London, 1846.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Porcellino".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.