Portrait of Silvio Ballerio

Silvio Ballerio (1856-1938), a career soldier, enlisted in the army when he is not yet twenty, belongs to a family that has many ties with the Ospedale Maggiore: his grandfather Giovanni, a patriot during the Cinque Giornate (Five Days), was one of the doctors; his brother Enrico and his sister-in-law Caterina Guglielomini are benefactors, having destined a conspicuous donation in memory of their son dott. Giovanni, also a doctor at Ca 'Granda, and a medical lieutenant in the First World War who died on the front of Gorizia. Silvio Ballerio gives the hospital the sum of thirty thousand lire in securities and the furnishing of his house in Desio, reserving himself the usufruct. In his will he then appointed the Ca 'Granda as universal heir, asking that the institution provide his daughter Enrichetta, the only survivor of the Ballerio family, with dignity. The commission of the portrait is entrusted to Pietro Cortelezzi, who performs a work that does not differ from the iconography of the benefactor's photo, used as a model. The installation and clothing are identical, the only difference being the addition of the decorations on the uniform. The painting is inserted in the Hospitaller Collections "while noting the lack of a true artistic inspiration". Even the rather chalky colors are more reminiscent of the fresco technique than oil painting. On the other hand Cortelezzi was above all a fresco painter and he was responsible for scenes with sacred subjects in various Milanese and Lombard churches.