Portrait of Rosa Belloni

Rosa Belloni (1856-1936), daughter of a doctor and descendant, from her mother, by Bianca and Giovanna Caimi, among the first benefactors of the Ca 'Granda in 1458, dedicated herself to the administration of the vast family farm in Nerviano (Milan) passionately interested in silkworm cultivation. Among the volunteers who prepared parcels for soldiers at the front in World War I, she weaves a pang corresponding to the fighters, the authorities and the other philanthropists, which flows into the War Archive established at the Castello Sforzesco. She gives the family jewels to make sacred objects for the churches of Nerviano. At her death she left a hospital in Naples to the Ospedale Maggiore, inherited from an aunt, foreseeing two legates, for the Hospital of the Pilgrims of Naples and for the poor peasants to be hospitalized from her estate and from the town of Nerviano everything. The commission of the benefactor's portrait is entrusted to Pierangelo Basorini, who during the execution relies on the collaboration of the deceased's heir, the accountant Pietro Belloni. In a letter to the art commission he declares that the artist had followed his directives, that the work was of his full satisfaction. While the landscape of the background, bright and delicate appears in consonance with the research of the "chiaristi", the figure of the benefactor is performed with a more traditional technique and with more precise and marked traits.