Saint Charles of Borromeo among Plague Victims

The priest with a halo above his head and dressed in mozzetta and stole is blessing a dying man. An acolyte on one side holds an open book, another from the other side holds a light and a Eucharistic host. In the front, a woman holding an infected man in her arms turns to the saint for help; a couple behind her direct their attention to assistants bringing comfort to someone in need. In addition to other small scenes, we can see a couple in the background carrying away the corpse of a person who succumbed to infection. 

This story is from the life of St. Carlo Borromeo, a cardinal and the archbishop of Milan, who exercised the principle of asceticism. During the Milan plague epidemic he provided spiritual and financial support, and in 1910 he was canonized for his beliefs and acts. 

The scene is known from the altar painting by Giovanni Bonatti of 1680 in the important Oratorian Cathedral of Sta Maria in Vallicella (Chiesa Nuova) in Rome. The reduction of the altar painting in Florence (Galleria Pitti) with many small differences is considered as the bozzetto made by the artist himself. It exists in several variations of approximately the same size. One copy from a private collection was auctioned in Milan; another is located in Berlin (Gemäldegalerie).
 

Zuzana Ludiková ● LUDIKOVÁ, Zuzana - BURAN, Dušan. Talianska maľba = Italian Painting. Bratislava : Slovenská národná galéria, 2013. 242 strán. ISBN 9788080591748.