The Sculpture Museum - Catalog - Page 70
giovanni francesco susini (1585– c. 1653)
15
Florence, 1st half 17th century
The Wild Boar (Il Porcellino)
After the Antique
Bronze, dark olive patina
17.8 cm (7 in.) high
20.3 cm (8 in.) wide
fig. 1
Roman, 2nd–1st century bc,
Wild boar, marble, 95 cm high
Florence, Uffizi
Affectionately known as Il Porcellino, the present composition owes its fame to the
life-size bronze cast of the original ancient sculpture by Pietro Tacca (1577–1640)
that sat proudly in the Mercato Nuovo in the centre of Florence until 2004,
and is now in the city’s Museo Bardini for conservation purposes. Excavated in
the courtyard of a private residence in Rome in the mid sixteenth century, the
antique prototype (fig. 1), carved in white marble, is first recorded in Florence in
1568, when it entered the Pitti Palace. By 1591 it was in the Uffizi, where it resides
to the present day. Since its discovery the Wild boar has been admired for its
naturalism and artistic quality, and was historically associated with the legend of
the Calydonian Boar killed by the young hero Meleager, a figure with which it has
sometimes been paired in later versions, such as Nicolas Coustou’s for Marly.
Our bronze, an exquisitely cast small-scale model of the celebrated antiquity,
bears the hallmarks of Giovanni Francesco, or Gianfrancesco, Susini’s production,
from the precise yet vibrant treatment of the animal’s fur to the neat contouring
of its anatomy. Interestingly, Filippo Baldinucci (ed. Ranalli, 1846, IV, p. 118) notes
that Gianfrancesco made a model of the Wild boar upon returning from a visit to
Rome. However, a version of the Boar signed by the artist’s uncle, Antonio Susini,
exists (now Berlin, Staatliche Museen) and we must not forget the marble would
already have been in Florence during Gianfrancesco’s time. This suggests he
worked from a mould present in his uncle’s workshop – which he had inherited in
1624 – and first-hand observation of the ancient original.
Conceived to be held in the hands of a passionate collector, this bronze belongs
to the tradition of models after renowned antiquities that represented both
homages to the masterpieces of the past and statements of their owners’ refined
taste and cultural aspirations. An important version of the Porcellino, attributed
to Gianfrancesco, is today in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Sitting on an
elaborate ebonized and pietra dura base – probably supplied by the Ducal Opificio
delle Pietre Dure – it is surrounded by four gilt bronze figures, an arrangement
that points towards the high esteem this bronze was held in.
related literature
C. Avery and A. Radcliffe, Giambologna, Sculptor to the Medici, exh. cat., Arts Council of
Great Britain, London, 1978, p. 196, no. 187, ill. p. 197
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900,
New Haven and London, 1981, p. 161, no. 13, ill. p. 162
