Portrait of San Carlo Borromeo

Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584), nephew of Pope Pius IV, cardinal and archbishop of Milan, later proclaimed saint, one of the most active advocates of the Counter-Reformation, nominated the Ospedale Maggiore as universal heir during the plague epidemic of 1576. The portrait , which was paid to the painter Ottavio Bizzozzero in 1680, would have been carried out to replace a similar work by Vincenzo Lavisone, commissioned in 1602, as shown by the Chapter ordinations, which no longer exist today. Ottavio Bizzozzero, a painter whose personal details are unknown, makes many portraits of benefactors, which suggests that he was in the service of the hospital with the specific function of portrait painter.