Portrait of Paolo Scanziani e Maria Melocchi Scanziani

Paolo Scanziani, born in 1863, son of a well-known Milanese antique dealer and a noblewoman of the Uboldi family, studied sculpture at the Brera Academy with Eugenio Bellosio; he exhibited and worked as a sculptor and chiseller until he entered the "Movio" bronze foundry, which also had a department at the Male Orphanage, where he worked alongside the production of bronze. He then set up his own business and bought a foundry of his own, from which monuments emerge for numerous European and Latin American squares. He has an excellent emotional and collaborative association in working with his wife Maria Melocchi. Both dedicated to the charity (Scanziani has been delegated to the Congregation of Charity for 17 years) decide to leave 200,000 lire to the Ospedale Maggiore, asking to be portrayed together in the portrait. The commission of the work is entrusted to Riccardo Galli, who represents the two spouses, now close to the golden wedding, in one, perhaps a bit stereotypical but pleasant, worldly iconography, in an attitude of serene affective complicity, in the everyday setting of their living room at a table littered with papers and books. The small sculpture in the background alludes to the profession of Paolo Scanziani.