Portrait of Ida Origgi

This is the second portrait executed to commemorate Ida Origgi (1874 - 1932), daughter of the owner of a small trattoria, but with a wealthy mother, who can give herself a life sheltered from economic worries by complying with her passion for travel. Victim of a car accident on 1 January 1932, she was transported to the Ospedale Maggiore where she died peacefully, after having cleared the driver and confirmed her testamentary dispositions, following which the Ospedale Maggiore inherited her wealth of 3 million of lire, with seven legates of 100,000 for other welfare institutions and numerous legacies for friends and relatives. The benefactor was committed to having her portrait executed by Aurelio Cartone at her own expense, of whom she was a friend and patron, but the picture does not meet the favor of the Artistic Commission, which entrusts the task of a second portrait to Cristoforo De Amicis. Not even this work has luck; it greatly influences the refusal of the Artistic Commission also the judgment of the relatives who define the painting "monstrous and insulting", an excessive qualification for a painting that can surely be accused of a certain heaviness and excessive body in the figure of the benefactor. However, due to the pose and the physical features, the painter made use of the rejected picture of Aurelio Cartone.