Federico Borromeo, Cardinal-Archbishop of Milan (1564-1631), is well known as a leading Catholic reformer and as the founder of the Ambrosiana library, art collection, and academy in that city. Less known is the fact that the institution's art museum was the culmination of many decades of reflection on the aesthetic qualities and religious roles of art. Borromeo recorded his reflections in two treatises.
De pictura sacra (Sacred Painting, 1624) laid out the rules that artists should follow when creating religious art. Borromeo touched on dozens of iconographical issues and in so...
Federico Borromeo, Cardinal-Archbishop of Milan (1564-1631), is well known as a leading Catholic reformer and as the founder of the Ambrosiana libr...