Il Porcellino

Finely cast bronze Grand Tour model after the Porcellino: the bronze fountain figure of a boar that was cast by Baroque sculptor Pietro Tacca around 1634 and adorned the Mercato Nuovo in Florence (where nowadays a copy can be found). Tacca based his statue on a Roman marble boar in the collection of the Medici Grand Dukes (now Uffizi). A small version of the Porcellino like ours was a much beloved souvenir for travelers visiting Florence on their Grand Tour. Our bronze boar dates from the second half of the 19th century, recently mounted on a beautiful dark red and green marble base.