Scior Carera (; ) and Omm de preja (; "stone man") are traditional, popular names used to refer to an ancient
Roman sculpture located in
Milan,
Italy, at No. 13 of
Corso Vittorio Emanuele (next to the
Duomo).
Scior Carera
' Before being located where it is now (on the facade of a modern building) in the mid 20th century,
the sculpture has been in different places around the city, most notably in Via San Pietro dall'Orto.
It is a marble
bas-relief dating back to the 3rd century, depicting 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.
The name is a corruption of the first word () of the
epigraph found below the statue,
Il Scior Carera
' a sentence credited to
Cicero: ("Anybody who wants to criticise someone should be free from all faults").
Remembering people
'
Another inscription below this one recalls 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
The Five Days of Milan ( ) was an insurrection and a major event in the Revolutionary Year of 1848 that started the First Italian War of Independence. On 18 March, a rebellion arose in the city of Milan, and in five days of street fighting ...
that started the
Five Days of Milan (whereby the Milanese quit smoking to cause economical damage to the Austrians) was possibly initiated on 31 December 1848 by a message attached to Scior Carera.
Because of the role of the statue in the fight for independence of Milan, its name was used for a satirical journal (,
Italian equivalent of ) that was published between 1856 and 1864 and again after 1878.
Cronologia di Milano: dal 1851 al 1860
'
References
{{coord missing, Italy
Culture in Milan
Statues in Italy
Talking statues
Sculptures of men in Italy