Portrait of Carlo Casartelli

Carlo Casartelli (1847-1917), from Como, brother of engineer Giuseppe, designer of the Brunate cable car, Garibaldi volunteer, owner of silk processing mills in Milan and Sesto San Giovanni, is not a direct benefactor of the Ospedale Maggiore. When the widow Giuseppina Rossi in her will establishes the hospital as universal heir, she asks that her husband, "my poor Carlo", should also be remembered with the commemorative portrait. The commission is entrusted to Esodo Pratelli, a member of the "Novecento" group, which represents it on a geometric and square background of chimneys, an allusion to its entrepreneurial activity and to the industrial vocation of the Lombard capital.