Piglet Statue, Italian Centre

Glasgow

The piglet statue in Glasgow’s Italian Centre is part of a neoclassical sculptural programme by Alexander Stoddart, and it symbolizes Italy through reference to the ancient Roman myth of Aeneas. In Virgil’s Aeneid, a white sow and her thirty piglets mark the destined site where Aeneas’s descendants would found Alba Longa — the precursor to Rome. The piglet in the Italian Centre thus alludes to Italy’s mythic origins and cultural heritage.