Portrait of Ester Belloli Castiglioni

Ester Belloli (1845-1925), daughter of Pietro, lawyer, archivist and assigned to the register of the Maggiore Hospital. She has, therefore, a bond with the Hospital forged since childhood. Married to a wealthy landlord, she loses her four-year-old daughter. Having remained a widow and heir of a conspicuous patrimony, in her will she assigns it to Ca 'Granda, which receives 450,000 lire. Her portrait was commissioned to Mario Moretti Foggia, a pupil of Cesare Tallone, who also makes portraits for the picture gallery of the Istituto dei Ciechi in Milan, and who is also a good landscape painter. Ester Belloli was the granddaughter of a famous pedagogist, Giuseppe Sacchi, nicknamed "dad Sacchi", for his commitment in favor of children, who had dedicated his life to the study and dissemination of pedagogy and the increase in Milanese nurseries.