The Wild Boar, Porcellino
The Wild Boar, Porcellino
3D
Published 2017-12-15T10:34:09+00:00
Il Porcellino (Eng. 'Piglet') or 'The Wild Boar' is the local Florentine nickname for a bronze fountain of a boar, from which this plaster copy was cast from.
The fountain figure was sculpted and cast by Baroque master Pietro Tacca (1577-1640) shortly before 1643, following a marble Italian copy of a Hellenistic marble original, at the time in the Grand Ducal collections and today in deplay 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 discovery with the Calydonian Boar of Greek Myth.
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, 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.
| Date published | 15/12/2017 |
| Schwierigkeitsgrad | Medium |
| Title | The Wild Boar, Porcellino |
| Date | 3rd century BC |
| Dimension | 137 x 154 x 93 cm |
| Accession | KAS2157 |
| Period | Hellenistic |
| Medium | Plaster |
| Record | http://collection.smk.dk/#/en/detail/KAS2157 |
| Place | SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst |
Video of make: https://youtu.be/x8gzv1Po81g
I always wondered how sculpts would look like if painted. This started when I was told that the sculpts in the metope of Parthenon where painted and what remains today is the decoloured marble after many ages.
Some times I just try to paint, but in other cases, something provocative comes into my mind and I follow a more creative path. In any case, enjoy!
More on my creative journeys at:
Website: http://www.creativejourneys.gr
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRCkvuF_oCh03GrvWeHe1HQ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mycreativejourneys