Scior Carera

Scior Carera

Scior Carera (Milanese for "Mister Carera") and Omm de preja (Milanese for "stone man") are traditional, popular names used to refer to an ancient Roman sculpture located in Milan (Italy), at nr. 13 of Corso Vittorio Emanuele (next to the Duomo).^[1][2] Before being located where it is now (on the facade of a modern building) in the mid 20th century,^[1] the sculpture has been in different places, most notably in Via San Pietro dall'Orto.

The name "Carera" is a corruption of the first word "Carere" of the epigraph found below the statue.^[3]

The sculpture is a marble bas-relief dating back to the 3rd century. It depicts a man wearing a toga, with the right leg slightly put forward; it has lost its arms as well as its head. The latter was replaced in the middle ages, supposedly to represent archbishop Adelmanno Menclozzi.^[1][2]

Under the relief there is an epigraph with a sentence credited to Cicero, Carere debet omni vitio qui in alterum dicere paratus est ("Anybody who wants to criticise someone should be free from all faults"^[2]). Another inscription below this one remembers the former collocation of the statue in Via San Pietro all'Orto as well as the role this statue has played in the 19th century during the Austrian rule of Milan; at the time, in fact, there was the common habit of attaching satirical political messages to the statue, much like what happened in Rome with Pasquino and other "talking statues".^[1][4] In particular, the so-called tobacco riots that started the Five Days of Milan (whereby the Milanese quit smoking to cause an economical damage to the Austrian) was possibly initiated on 31 December 1848^[5] by a message attached to Scior Carera.^[1]

Because of the role of the statue in the fight for independence of Milan, its name was used for a satirical journal (L'uomo di pietra, Italian equivalent of Omm de preja) that was published between 1856 and 1864 and again after 1878.^[6][7]

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Scior Carera (in Italian)
2. ^ ^{a b c} Remembering people
3. ^ Il Scior Carera (in Italian)
4. ^ Centro storico (in Italian)
5. ^ Antico romano condannato allo shopping (in Italian)
6. ^ Le statue raccontano: date un nome ai monumenti (in Italian)
7. ^ Cronologia di Milano: dal 1851 al 1860 (in Italian)