Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; XVII century.
"St. Charles Borromeo".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It presents faults in the pictorial surface.
Measurements: 165 x 104 cm.
Devotional scene in which San Carlos Borromeo is presented, as it is indicated in the cartouche located in the inferior zone of the image. This type of works proliferated in the area of the Counter-Reformation, where against Protestantism, Christianity chose to give value and relevance to the life of martyr saints and people dedicated to the Christian faith. In this case, the large format of the work indicates that it was probably part of the ornamentation of a church, designed for a high place due to the point of view used by the author to compose the image.
Saint Charles Borromeo was a reformer saint of the post-Tridentine period, cardinal nephew of Pius IV and archbishop of Milan. From an aristocratic family, he received the clerical tonsure at the age of eight, and soon after was sent to Milan to pursue humanistic studies with the preceptor Bonaventura Castiglioni. In 1559 he received a doctorate in law, and that same year his uncle, Giovanni Angelo de' Medici, was elected pope, an event that was decisive in the life of the young Charles. The recently appointed Pope Pius IV sent him to Rome and showered him with honors and dignities, among them that of cardinal. A man of extraordinary talent for government, his life changed radically when he was ordained a priest in 1563. He gave up his worldly tastes, such as hunting and music, and retired to the Jesuits. Nevertheless, he took part again in Vatican politics at the third convocation of the Council of Trent, where he was able to avoid serious conflicts. Later, when he was ordained cardinal of Milan, the most famous event of the saint's life took place, which defines the heroic abnegation and sense of responsibility of his office: the so-called plague of St. Charles, in his city. Borromeo was away, but when he learned of the outbreak of the plague, he hastened his return to help the sick materially and spiritually. Once there, he begged for alms in the city and from his own patrimony he sold the precious objects he had left. He even gave up the hangings of his palace to make dresses. He personally went everywhere, visited all the neighborhoods and himself administered the last sacraments to the priests who succumbed in that work of charity, disregarding the danger of contagion.