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Porcellino

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Pietro Tacca's bronze Porcellino (Museo Bardini)

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,[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 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,[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.[citation needed]

Copies

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

Australia
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
France
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Japan
  • Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture
Norway
Spain
Sweden
U.S.

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.[15]

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 II (2011) in the Room of Requirement.[citation needed]

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.

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. ^ Haskell, Francis; Penny, Nicholas (1981). Taste and the Antique : the Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-02913-6. OCLC 6863945.
  3. ^ Haskell and Penny.
  4. ^ "Ground Floor (#6)". Museo Stefano Bardini. Retrieved 2020-01-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Smollett, Travels Through France and Italy, 1766, Letter XXVIII, noted in Haskell and Penny.
  6. ^ Shirley Fitzgerald (2008). "Il Porcellino". Dictionary of Sydney. Dictionary of Sydney Trust. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  7. ^ "Celebrating the Boar". Special Collections & Archives. University of Waterloo Library. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
  8. ^ http://www.jagd-fischerei-museum.de
  9. ^ Historic England. "Statue of Boar at North-east end of path to the Italian Garden (Grade II) (1119167)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  10. ^ Historic England. "Statue of Wild Boar and pedestal (Grade II*) (1172729)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  11. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-05-05. Retrieved 2016-05-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ "Picture Perfect Places". Viansa Winery. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  13. ^ "Il Porcellino - Manhattan, NY". 12 January 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  14. ^ "Il Porcellino - Lyndon Center, Vermont". 7 August 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  15. ^ Translated by Charles Beckwith, London, 1846.
  16. ^ "Public Art Around the World". Archived from the original on 2015-05-03. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
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