Portrait of Paolo Morigia

[1][2] Fogolari described and dated the work based on the inscription at the top,[3] which reads "FIDES GALICIA VIRGO PUDICISS.

[4] Its subject is the historian and Jesuit Paolo Morigia, holding spectacles in his left hand and writing the lyrics of a madrigal with his right.

The reflection of the windows in the spectacle lenses shows the influence of contemporary Flemish art, whilst the great expressivity of the lips draws on Giovanni Battista Moroni's realism and the physiognomical studies then particularly popular in Lombardy thanks to Leonardo da Vinci.

[5] The madrigal lyrics were published by Sutherland Harris and reading "Fu già GALITIA FEDE / Che per tenermi dopo morto in vita / Qui spirante, e qui vivo a te m'addita.".

[7] In his following book, the 1595 La nobiltà di Milano, Morigia praised a portrait of him by Fede Galizia.