The boar casting, which weighs about 700 pounds, was made for Crapo in 1962. The mold for the casting was made in the seventeenth century from an ancient Greek marble sculpture which is now in a gallery in Florence. Roberts said the dean of arts, Dr. Brian Hendley, asked her to take charge of finding UW's boar a new home, and she'd like advice in the very near future. Boar's coming home. Site outside ML planned The boar is about to get a home in front of the Modern Languages building - probably.
Works of art take on unusual significance when they are about to be placed permanently.
The 700-pound bronze boar has been adopted by some as the arts faculty mascot, especially because it was so long a fixture in the Modern Languages foyer. Students in the 1980's used it as a meeting place, rubbed its nose for good luck before exams and, if they were older, let it babysit their children, who were always fascinated by the small creatures at its base. A bronze casting made by Pietro Tacca in 1620 sits on the south side of the Straw Market in Florence, where for generations passers-by have rubbed his nose for luck. The seventeenth-century sculptor completely changed the base of the simpler Greek statue, adding a pool surrounded by plants, frogs, snakes and turtles. When Crapo left Waterloo he donated the casting to the UW-based Descartes Foundation.