Edoardo Rossetti

Two unpublished inventories illustrate some of the dynamics of Milanese patronage in the first decades of the 17th century: that of the nobleman Giovanni Maria Visconti (1638) and that of the painter Giovanni Battista Crespi, known as Cerano (1632).The figure of Visconti appears as a guide for the Milanese patrons in their attention to ‘modern’ painters, but with a marked interest also directed towards the conservation of works of the early Milanese Renaissance. On the other hand, the information on Cerano’s lifestyle allows us to reflect on the social status of Milanese painters...