Portrait of the Childrenof Gian Giacomo Trivulzio

The Marquis Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, grandfather of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli, was the heir to one of the largest collections in Milan and a collector himself of small, precious items, such as cameos, medals, miniatures and ivory diptychs. He commissioned numerous family portraits from Giambattista Gigola, one of the most refined miniaturists of the neoclassical period.
In this tondo the mother of the founder of the museum, Rosa Trivulzio, is portrayed with her sisters Cristina and Elena and their brother, Giorgio Teodoro. The children with their smiling faces are crowded into the miniature. A fine violet thread tethers a butterfly, a symbol of the soul (psyché in Greek means both butterfly and soul). This is an image Gigola repeated in other works. The composition has all the charm of ancient cameos.