Thursday, October 5, 2017

Scior Carera

Scior Carera (Milanese for ‘Mister Carera’), Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Milan

Scior Carera (Milanese for ‘Mister Carera’)
Corso Vittorio Emanuele
Milan, November 2016

“The name ‘Carera’ is a corruption of the first word ‘Carere’ of the epigraph found below the statue. 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. 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’). 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’. 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 Austrians) was possibly initiated on 31 December 1848 by a message attached to Scior Carera.” (Scior Carera, Wikipedia)

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