Scior Carera (; ) and Omm de preja (; "stone man") are traditional, popular names used to refer to an ancient

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

sculpture located in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, at No. 13 of

Corso Vittorio Emanuele Corso may refer to: * Corso (surname) * Corso, Boumerdès, a commune in Boumerdès Province, Algeria * Council of Organisations for Relief Service Overseas, see Jenny Gill * Via del Corso, a main street in Rome * "CORSO," a song by rapper Tyler, th ...

(next to the

Duomo ''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as, a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. Monza Cathedral, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definition n ...

).
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 Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

dating back to the 3rd century, depicting a man wearing a ''

toga The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...

'', 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 In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, 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 Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

: ("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

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n 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 , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

with

Pasquino Pasquino or Pasquin (Latin: ''Pasquillus'') is the name used by Romans since the early modern period to describe a battered Hellenistic-style statue perhaps dating to the third century BC, which was unearthed in the Parione district of Rome ...

and other "

talking statues Talking may refer to: * Speech, the product of the action of ''to talk'' * Communication by spoken words; conversation or discussion Other uses * "Talking" (The Rifles song), 2007 * "Talking" (A Flock of Seagulls song), 1983 * "Talking", a son ...

". In particular, the so-called tobacco riots that started the

Five Days of Milan 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 ...

(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 Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

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