Nuvolone gradually adhered to the new Baroque sensibility by lightening his palette and producing airy compositions, pervaded by a tender emotional mood, characteristics that were to remain typical of his work throughout his career.

This delicate figure of a saint, which is probably Mary Magdalene given the presence of the angel and the book, was attributed to the Milanese artist Carlo Francesco Nuvolone by Marco Bona Castellotti; this was later confirmed by Santa Lucia and by Ferro.¹ 

After an initial youthful period marked by the gloomy, disturbing atmosphere of the Cardinal Borromeo years and the influence of Il Cerano and Francesco Cairo, from the 1640s on Il Nuvolone gradually adhered to the new Baroque sensibility by lightening his palette and producing airy compositions, pervaded by a tender emotional mood, characteristics that were to remain typical of his work throughout his career.² This change in style, which combined a renewed interest in Correggio with a familiarity with the directions contemporary Genoese painting was taking, is also evident in his production of easel works for private collections. From the fifth decade of the century on, the Nuvolone workshop also included Carlo Francesco’s younger brother Giuseppe and some assistants. It produced a large number of small and medium format female half-lengths, varying in quality: biblical heroines, protagonists of historical and mythological episodes and saints in languid sensual poses, which were much in demand by private collectors and continued to be sought after even in the 18th century.³ This genre was also very popular with other painters active in Milan during that period, including Ercole Procaccini, Carlo Cornara, Giovanni Battista Discepoli and Francesco Cairo.⁴ 

In 1655 Carlo Francesco Nuvolone executed a large altarpiece depicting The Penitent Magdalene and Angels for the Poor Clares of Alessandria, which was reprised in a slightly later copy by his brother Giuseppe, for the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Novara and became a model for a myriad of easel paintings of ecstatic saints and martyrs, now mostly in private collections.⁵ The Cerruti panel dates from this phase at the height of Il Nuvolone’s maturity and is of extremely high quality and in an excellent state of preservation. It is reminiscent of the Alessandria altarpiece in the way the figures are rendered with light, nuanced brushstrokes and the palette of reds and blues emerges from the brown ground, offsetting the soft white flesh tones and the touches of gold in the hair. Confirmation of the great popularity this kind of work enjoyed with collectors is found on the back of the painting. In fact, the wood lining still bears traces of changes in ownership: some wax seals, unfortunately illegible, and inventory numbers from various periods, as well as an antique - probably 18th-century - inscription attributing the painting to “Carlo Francesco Panfilo detto il Nuvolone Milanese”. 

Serena D’Italia 

¹ Bona Castellotti 1985, p. 396; Santa Lucia 1995-96, p. 155, no. 45; Ferro 2003, p. 220 no. 186, who prefers not to specify the subject’s identity.

² Frangi 2013.

³ A. Pacia, “Il conte Luigi Tadini, collezionista di Carlo Francesco Nuvolone e di altre ‘bellezze milanesi’”, in Varese 2012-13, pp. 16-23.

⁴ F. Frangi, “Bellezze milanesi”, in Rancate 2001, pp. 56-63.

⁵ For a partial list see Ferro 2003, pp. 220-221 nos. 184-188; on the Alessandria altarpiece, judged to be too osé by 18th-century visitors, as was its Novara replica, see S. Coppa, in Novara 2015, pp. 54-55, cat. 12, with previous bibliography.