Art Institute of Chicago

Saint Charles Borromeo Entering the Town of Pavia: Design for a Wall Decoration

Cesare Nebbia

Date

c. 1604

Medium

Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, over traces of graphite, on cream laid paper, laid down on buff card

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Cardinal Charles Borromeo (1538–1584) was one of the major figures of the Counter-Reformation in late-16th-century Rome. To mark and promote Borromeo’s beatification, in 1602, Nebbia was commissioned to decorate the ceiling and walls of the Collegio Borromeo, in Pavia, in his honor. While this drawing may have been intended for a never-completed fresco on the north or south wall, the two other drawings on view nearby were used for monochrome frescos. Borromeo’s case progressed to the Congregation of Rites in 1604, and he was officially canonized by Pope Paul V in 1610.

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