Porcellino
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Il Porcellino (Italian "piglet") is the local Florentine name for the bronze fountain of a boar Il Cinghiale in the Mercato Nuovo in Florence, Italy. The fountain figure was sculpted and cast by Baroque master Pietro Tacca (1577 –1640) in 1612, following a marble Italian copy of a Hellenistic marble original, at the time in the Grand Ducal collections of the Uffizi, but which has since been lost or destroyed. Visitors to Il Porcellino toss a coin into the grating at the boar's feet and rub the boar's snout to ensure a return to Firenze, a tradition that 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 of the sculpture can be found around the world.
Correction; the Hellenistic marble still exists and is located in the UFFIZI gallery:
From the Uffizi web site:
"The vestibule at the head of the stairs leading to the Gallery contains several antique statues of merit—the celebrated Boar, which was copied in bronze by the Florentine Pietro Tacca for the fountain of the Mercato Nuovo".
Sightings Around the World:
- Sydney Hospital - Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Viansa Winery - Sonoma, CA, USA
- Derby Arboretum - Derby, Great Britain
- Butchart Gardens - Victoria, BC, Canada
- University of Waterloo - Waterloo, ON, Canada
- Sutton Place Park - New York, NY, USA
- Strawbridge and Clothier Department Store - Philadelphia, PA, USA
- University of Arkansas - Fayetteville, AR, USA
- The Louvre - Paris, France
- The Country Club Plaza, Kansas City - MO, USA
- Aix en Provence, France
- Private residence - Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
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- Lyndonville, Vermont, USA
- Balmoral Castle - Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK
- The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom - Lake George, NY, USA
- Near the Marienplatz - Munich, Germany
- Private Residence - Naples, Florida, USA
