In 1893 Arturo Ferrari took part in the Esposizione Straordinaria Nazionale e Internazionale, an exhibition of watercolours at the Milan Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente, winning a silver medal for a work entitled S. Stefano in Borgogna. At this same exhibition, the Ticino artist Luigi Rossi showed the watercolour, Sorrow and Curiosity, which was a study for the large painting The School of Sorrow in the Cariplo Collection.

Perhaps it was Ferrari’s success at the show that encouraged him to execute, in 1896, the version in oils now in the Collection, which shows a perspective view of the medieval church of Santo Stefano, in which he reconstructs its Baroque forms dating to the time of St Charles Borromeo. On the basis of a life study of the setting, a delicate watercolour now in the Museo di Milano and possibly identifiable as the work exhibited in 1893, the painter represents the exterior of the building before it was deconsecrated and used for storing wood, around the mid-1860s. Hence it is not a contemporary view but a philological reconstruction of the place when it was still frequented by the faithful, as evinced by the female figure in black carrying a prayer book who appears to have just come out of the door, and the other woman wearing a veil who is about to enter the church, which dates the scene to at least 30 years before the work was actually executed. The inclusion of the Italian flag on the balcony of the building in the foreground seems to indicate the year 1866, and is probably linked to the wave of popular enthusiasm over the Italian army’s victory in the third war of independence that same year. The actual execution of the work, dated 1896, is therefore related to the political climate at the time, when the country was celebrating the 30th anniversary of the victory that was fundamental to the completion of the process of Italian unification. As well as its patriotic appeal, the work is designed to satisfy the desire of a middle class public for paintings that were straightforward and pleasing. Thus the painter offers a picturesque view of Milan – destined to disappear during the urban renewal of the 1930s – adopting a snapshot style but without relinquishing the lively descriptive quality that had had ensured his public acclaim. The distinguishing feature of Ferrari’s painting is his ability to represent with philological rigour and rich detail the places and events of the past, which he often combines with genre scenes rendered with vivid realism. He is also known for his reconstructions in a neo-18th century style, such as 15th-century Courtyard in Castiglione Olona, in the Cariplo Collection; as well as for the more picturesque views of “Old Milan”, which was disappearing and giving way to the modern metropolis, like the one depicted in his acknowledged masterpiece In the Old Street, also in the Collection.