Lost wax bronze replica from original mold.
Author: Pietro Tacca (1577-1640)
Period: 1612
Il Porcellino (Italian "piglet") is the local Florentine nickname for the bronze fountain of a boar. The fountain, placed in the "new market" served over its pure decorative purpouse, also as a mean trough which merchants could supply themselves with water. The base that Tacca developed is enriched with many little but truly realistic animals of the swamps where wild boars usually stay; frogs, snails, lizards, tortoises, crabs and a grass snake. The tradition wants that visitors to Il Porcellino put a coin into the gaping boar's jaws with the intent to let it fall through the underlying grating for good luck and rub the boar's snout to ensure a return to Firenze, a tradition that has rendered the snout in a state of polished sheen while the rest of the boar's body has kept its original brownish-green patina. Our Replica is available as a complete fountain or as a single bronze. The original masterpiece is now conserved inside the Bardini Museum, Florence.
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