Climbing among the spiers and pinnacles of the Milan Cathedral you would hardly expect to see them, but there are two truly curious statues: those of boxers Primo Carnera and Erminio Spallasculpted complete with boxing gloves and shorts.
The figures of the two famous Italian heavyweight champions of the 1930s – which are found, precisely, on the walkway of the high terraces (south side, towards the Gallery) – were created around 1937 by the sculptor Paolo Mezzanotte on the orders of the Fascist Party to celebrate the cult of sport.
Carnera and Spalla, in fact, perfectly embodied the sportsmen from whom to draw inspiration, being considered by Mussolini and the party fanatics as powerful symbols of physical strength, athletic vigor and prestige for the nation.
Who were the two boxers Primo Carnera and Erminio Spalla
The Friulian Primo Carnera (1906-1967), also known as “the Gentle Giant” or “the Walking Mountain” due to his height (1.97 meters tall and weighing over 120 kilos), after his early adolescence spent working as a laborer in France, he became part of the circus world as a sideshow phenomenon, given his enormous size. Precisely in that period he was noticed by a former French boxing champion, who trained him and helped him move on to actual boxing.
In June 1933, he became the first Italian to win the world heavyweight title, beating American Jack Sharkey in New York. The triumph consecrated him as a popular hero and the fascist regime made it one of the greatest symbols of propaganda (although his son Umberto reported to the press that his father was a simple man, completely uninterested in politics and exploited by power).
After the war he remained in the United States, where he was also successful in wrestling, and cultivated his artistic passions (literature, art and opera above all), which brought him closer to the world of cinema and led him to become an actor.
The other pioneer of Italian boxing, the Piedmontese Erminio Spalla (1897–1971), became famous for having won the European heavyweight title in 1923 at the Arena Civica in Milan (he was the first Italian to do so, in the queen category). Spalla, however, as an eclectic personality that he was, did not limit himself only to boxing: he studied art at the Brera Academy, establishing himself as a sculptor with works at the Monumentale in Milan, sang professionally as an operatic baritone and acted in more than fifty films, also working with directors such as Vittorio De Sica and Pietro Germi.
The strange statuettes of the Cathedral: why they are there
These two statuettes might seem like an isolated case, but this is not the case. Since the origins of the construction site (1389), in fact, the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo had left the sculptors and stonecutters a certain creative freedom for the minor figures, the gargoyles and the decorations of the terraces.
Over the centuries, therefore, artisans often created sculptures that referenced daily life, crafts, contemporary characters and even profane or bizarre elements.
Precisely in the same years in which the statuettes of the two boxers were sculpted, other sports-themed homages were also created (such as a tennis racket, dumbbells and other gymnastic equipment) and the faces of some figures of the time, such as King Vittorio Emanuele III and Mussolini. After the fall of the fascist regime, however, the stonemasons intervened on the Duce’s face to disguise it and make it less recognisable, adding a turban to his head and a hint of a beard. Now, to casual eyes, he might seem like an anonymous oriental dignitary.
