Portrait of Maria Baldini Somigliani

Maria Baldini Somigliani (1822-1901), of a noble family from Pavia, but living in Milan, appoints a cousin as his universal heir, providing numerous legates, including one of 100,000 lire, net of inheritance tax, for the Maggiore Hospital. The portrait commission is assigned to Giovanni Bagioli, at the suggestion of the relatives of the benefactor, to whom he had already made a private portrait and uses that and a photo of the face of the deceased's body as a model.