Pinacoteca
DON FERRANTE'S BOOKS IN THE BIBLIOTECA AMBROSIANA
An exhibition that aims at reconstructing the "considerable collection of books” belonging to Don Ferrante, which Alessandro Manzoni describes in the Promessi Sposi (The Bethroted).
This painting, with its very balanced composition and extremely delicate tones, shows the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, just as Simeon takes the Child into his arms. Its formal characteristics show that it must have been painted in the 1720s. Scholars are undecided on whether this is a preparatory study or a work that is small in size to make it suitable for private devotion.