Portrait of Saint Charles Borromeo

Traditionally attributed to Giovanni Ambrogio Figino, this portrait of Saint Charles is in any case the work of a Lombard artist. It was made in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century and reflects the devotional zeal which sprang up around the great Archbishop of Milan, and which culminated in his canonisation in 1610. Federico Borromeo referred to this portrait as the best that had ever been painted of Saint Charles.