The statue at the top of Spire G23 has been at the center of a long debate regarding the iconography of the work: studying the archive sources of the Veneranda Fabbrica, a double possible identification remains. Recently there are those who have identified in the features of the man looking towards the sky the martyr Tranquillino (from the Latin Tranquillus or “calm”), who lived in the third century AD. Father of the saints Mark and Marcellian of Rome, he was martyred while praying on the tomb of the apostle Paul, where he was stoned by the pagans who threw his body into the Tiber river. Other hypotheses instead identify the sculpted subject as San Saturnino of Cagliari, a figure much worshipped in Sardinia. The young Saturninus would have been beheaded for refusing to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods in the year 304, during Diocletian’s persecutions. The story of the Passion of San Saturnino of Cagliari also follows that of another San Saturnino, bishop of Toulouse, and of San Sergio. Further hypotheses have also been raised which would see San Saturnino as an African martyr venerated in Sardinia, given the frequent contacts between the island and the Mediterranean regions of the African continent. However, it is difficult to establish which African Saturninus it is given the numerous Martyrs who bear this name. San Saturnino is celebrated on October 30th especially in Cagliari where the relics of the city’s patron saint are preserved.

Tales of the statue in Dome’s building site:

the statue that we see today in work on the Milan Cathedral is a 1953 reproduction by the sculptor Bassetti, who takes the original created by Arturo Malerba as a model.