Portrait of Manfredo Settala

This painting shows Canon Manfredo Settala, the famous Milanese collector whose encyclopaedic museum entered the Ambrosiana through a bequest in 1751. Settala, the son of the famous head physician of Manzonian fame, is shown here at a young age. He is holding a curious ivory object which has been turned on a lathe. It was quite probably he himself who made it, for not only did he collect naturalistic items of all kinds for his museum, but he also expanded his collection with various curios and scientific instruments that he himself designed and made.