Assumption of the Virgin Mary with Sts Roch, Catherine of Alexandria and Agnes

The painting depicts the assumption of Our Lady in the presence of three saints: Roch, recognisable by the traditional iconographic attributes of the pilgrim’s habit and the dog with the loaf of bread, Catherine of Alexandria, with the palm of martyrdom and a crown alluding to his noble birth, and, on the right, Agnes, who in addition to the symbols of the martyrs wears a white dress and carries a lamb, testifying to her virginal purity. Until the late 18th century, the painting was placed on a side altar of the church
of the Monastery of Santa Clara. After the suppression of the Monastery, it was taken to the nearby
Church of San Bartolomeo, before being transferred to the Pinacoteca in 2017.
The style of the painting means it can be attributed with certainty to Giulio Cesare Procaccini, member of a famous family of artists originating from Bologna who moved to Milan at the end of the 16th
century. The altarpiece sent to Como is from an early stage in his painting career.
There is still some hesitancy in the management of space, but the kneeling saints already have all
the pictorial quality and emotional strength that can be seen in the artist’s future masterpieces. (P. Vanoli)