Porcellino

About

The Porcellino (transl. "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 moved 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 in Florence, then moved to the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo; 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...

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

- Sydney Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales

- Place de Bastogne, Koekelberg, Brussels

- Butchart Gardens, Victoria, British Columbia

- Modern Languages building, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

- Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia

- Sitzender Keiler [ de ] (recreation by Martin Mayer [ de ] ) in the Borstei [ de ] and in front of the German Hunting and Fishing Museum, Munich

- Tokyo, Nihonbashi District, Pigeon Corporation Headquarters

- Uroko no Ie, Kitano Ijinkan, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture

- St Mary's College, Durham, Durham, England

- Kimmerghame House, Scottish Borders, Scotland

- University of Arkansas campus, Fayetteville

- Delaware Museum of Natural History, Wilmington

- Armstrong Kessler Mansion, 447 Bull Street, Savannah

- Riverview Inn & Suites, on the Rock River in Rockford

- The Villages Shopping Center, Prairie Village

- Country Club Plaza, N.W. Corner of 47th Street and Wornall Road, Kansas City

- Main Street Station Casino Brewery Hotel - at casino bar, Las Vegas

- The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom amusement park at Queensbury