The following excerpt from the exhibition catalog provides background on Antiveduto Grammatica’s work, “Saint Charles Borromeo and Two Angels,” painted circa 1619-21.

“Grammatica’s ‘Saint Charles Borromeo and Two Angels’ shows the saint contemplating Milan’s precious relic of the Holy Nail as he beseeches God for mercy on behalf of his diocese during the plague of 1576-77. During the pestilence, Borromeo led several penitential processions barefoot with a noose around his neck in imitation of the condemned Christ. All the while Borromeo contemplated the Holy Nail (it had long before been fashioned into a horse’s bit, hence its odd shape), which he had affixed to a large cross that he carried in procession. In his biography of Borromeo, published in 1592, Carlo Bascape stated that Borromeo undertook the penitential processions in emulation of Saint Gregory the Great during the plague of 590 in Rome .”

More on the exhibit in this issue:

Hope and Healing>
Excerpt from the exhibition catalog on Antiveduto Grammatica’s work, “Saint Charles Borromeo and Two Angels" >
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