PROCACCINI GIULIO CESARE Lot n° 13

GIULIO CESARE PROCACCINI (1570-1625) 'San Carlo in veste di Sant'Ambrogio' oil about 1610 cm. 95 5x146 Exhibited at the exhibition 'Sacro lombardo dai Borromeo al Simbolismo' Milano Palazzo Reale October 2010 January 2011 and published in the exhibition catalogue edited by S.Zuffi at pag. 148 and 149 and exhibited at the exhibition 'Ambrogio: l'immagine ed il volto arte dal XIV al XVII secolo' Milan Museo Diocesano March-June 1998 and published in the exhibition catalogue edited by P.Biscottini L.Crivelli e S.Zuffi. 'This work discovered by Orest Marini and attributed by him to Giulio Caesare Procaccini with the subsequent unanimous agreement of the critics was published in the catalogue of the exhibition 'Amrogio: l'immagine e il volto Arte dal XIV al XVII secolo' in 1998 because of its particular iconography. In fact, during his episcopate Saint Charles tended to identify himself with Saint Ambrose and tried to emphasize as much as possible the continuity between his pastoral work and that of the ancient Milanese patron saint. Giovanni Pietro Giussano (1610), one of Borromeo's biographers, confirms the model that Charles wanted to follow, as shown by his choice to be consecrated Bishop on December 7th, like Saint Ambrose. Charles in this painting by Giulio Cesare Procaccini wears the episcopal robe and is depicted while he takes divine inspiration to write some writings and holds in his left hand the stirrup, a typical iconographic attribute of the fight against heretics led by Saint Ambrose. The volume supported by the Angels could therefore represent both the patristic texts written by the ancient patron and one of the many writings that Saint Charles left behind. Among these writings there was also the decree De barba radenda of 1576 in which Borromeo stresses how important it is for priests to maintain a clean aesthetic appearance as 'a sign of an ordered and disciplined interior appearance' (E.Bianchi in La Città e la sua memoria...1997). This is probably the reason why the painter painted the face of Saint Charles with a beard and not, as traditionally wished, Saint Ambrose with a flowing beard, often shaved, symbol of a majestic role. This choice was also made by Cerano in the Sant'Ambrogio conserved at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Procaccini's work is probably part of those commissions formulated on the occasion of the sanctification of Carlo Borromeo in 1610, a celebration that elevated the Milanese Archbishop to the same rank as his example Ambrose.' Martina Degl'Innocenti Bibliography Giussano 1610 p.35; E.Bianchi in La città e la sua memoria...1997 pp. 289/297; Ambrogio: L'immagine e il volto...1998 p.24