It’s the renaissance of the Italian Stallion.
The iconic statue of fictional prizefighter Rocky Balboa which has long stood outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art is moving up in weight class from public work to fine art.
After decades of tension between the museum and the worldwide tourist destination mirrored from the beloved classic 1979 film, curators have finally bent the knee to the bronze Balboa and allowed the 2-ton sculpture inside its doors to fill gaps in their summer programs, NBC News reported.
“Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments,” which opens this weekend, will include the fictional boxer’s figure as part of its exhibit.
The exhibit — examining how a fictional fighter and statue became a real-life symbol of Philadelphia’s identity — traces “more than two millennia of artists’ engagement with boxing and celebrity,” according to the museum’s website.
Ranging from ancient sculptures to paintings from Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol “illuminate what visitors project onto the Rocky statue: ideals of the underdog — perseverance, spirit, and grit — values shaped by the history of the sport and by lived struggle and aspiration,” the website reads.
The statue based on Sylvester Stallone’s titular “Rocky” landed near the bottom of the museum’s steps because of the film’s iconic scene of the Italian Stallion jogging through the streets of Philly trailed by an ever-growing crowd of supporters culminating in a sprint up the museum steps.
It is visited by roughly 4 million people each year, according to the Philadelphia Visitor Center.
Meanwhile, a Rocky statue on loan from Stallone’s private collection has been temporarily placed at the top of the steps — replacing the city’s own.
In August, when the exhibit ends, the city statue will be brought back outside and placed at the top of the museum’s steps in place of Stallone’s personal one.
At the bottom of steps where the Rocky statue long called home, a new statue is being built to honor legendary Philadelphia boxer “Smokin” Joe Frazier, whose real-life story at least partially inspired Rocky.
“Without Joe Frazier, Rocky doesn’t exist,” said Louis Marchesano, the museum’s deputy director of curatorial affairs and conservation.