#6 [ENG] Four Times Milan at San Siro Stadium. AC Milan, Inter, Martinitt and Panettoni

Mario De Biasi was not a great football fan. Rather than support his favourite team, he certainly preferred to blend in the crowd, taking repeated photographs of parked cars, people, architectural structures, letting himself be guided by his infallible instincts. From time to time, however, his eye also shifted to the field. This photograph, dated 1955, immortalises the beginning of a match punctuated by a Milanese ritual. We see the players gathered in the midfield, while 11 children are delivering panettone to them.But what scene are we seeing? Let’s listen to Silvia De Biasi."Looking at this photo I think my father was attracted, in the first place, by the graphic construction evident within the frame, again taken from above. A perfect crossing of straight lines and curves. Dad also always said he had captured, in a single shot, four symbols of Milan: the opposing formations of the football teams Milan and Inter, on the legendary grass of San Siro, the Martinitt — boys from the historic Milanese orphanage — and the panettone. Historic Milan fans have recounted that twice a year, on the occasion of the derby, the young orphans of the school in Via Pitteri, the Martinitt, greeted the players with a sweet gift. On this occasion, the hospitality of Milan meets the great sport of Milan, bringing a symbolic product of the city’s entrepreneurship as a gift. On the back of the picture, my father wrote: "four times Milan," meaning Milan, Inter, Martinitt and panettone. His mind as a photographer, always on the move, perpetually at work, records all these complexities with a single ‘click,’ rendering them in an image that’s only seemingly simple.”