Portrait of Paolo Morigia

This portrait of Paolo Morigia, superior general of the Jesuates (the Apostolic Clerics of Saint Jerome), is remarkable for the artist’s technical skills and was much praised by the sitter himself, who said it was a perfect likeness: “it bears such a resemblance to nature that for more one could not ask”. The emphasis here is not so much on the religious aspect of Morigia as on him as an erudite historian and it is worth noting that he is holding a pair of glasses in his right hand. The meticulously naturalistic rendering of the objects reminds us that Fede Galizia was also a painter of still lifes. The paper the friar is writing on bears verses by Borgogni, which refer to the painting and to the artist’s painting skills.