Porcellino


The Porcellino is the local Florentine nickname for the bronze fountain of a boar. The fountain figure was sculpted and cast by Baroque master Pietro Tacca 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, 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. 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 the 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
;Canada
;Denmark
;France
;Germany
  • Sitzender Keiler in the Borstei and in front of the Deutschen Jagd- und Fischereimuseum, Munich
;Italy
;Japan
;Norway
;Spain
;Sweden
;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.
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. A plaque nearby explains the relationship between this boar and the story.

In film

Il Porcellino appears in the 2001 film Hannibal when Chief Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi cleans his hands in the fountain.
The statue is also seen briefly in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 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 in the Room of Requirement.
In the 1962 film Light in the Piazza, Fabrizio pats the boar's snout for luck after buying flowers.