SAINT WITH CROSS

North Transept Spire-G107

The period that followed World War 2 marked intense activity for Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, which had to restore the massive damage wrought by aerial bombings in 1943, especially to some spires, to two flying buttresses in the northern sector, and also to large windows in the apse, and to two portals of the façade. The statue at the top of the spire is by master sculptors of Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano’s marble workers’ site, and replaces a sculpture made by Gerolamo Argenti in 1811 and dedicated to Sant’Achilleo (St. Achilles). The current statue, instead, portrays a saint with cross in hand. It is an example of the Fabbrica’s intense activity after World War 2, a sign of the intention to mark a rebirth, and of the work of experts to restore the monument of Milan to all its splendour. The previous sculpture, portraying Sant’Achilleo, was identified by Ugo Nebbia in the early 1900s as the work of Gerolamo Argenti (1811), a renowned sculptor from Viggiù, a member of the crowd of artists from Viggiù who, as employees of Veneranda Fabbrica, contributed to enrich the Duomo with a considerable part of the Cathedral’s 2,300 statues. Argenti is considered the master of Abbondio Molinari.