The Madonna of the Rosary

The rosary belonged to the Dominicans. Their own tradition held that the Virgin had put the string of beads into the hands of their founder, Saint Dominic, and by the early 1600s counting prayers on it was the everyday devotion of ordinary Milanese. This altarpiece was made for a house of Dominican nuns, San Lazzaro at Porta Romana, and it shows that handover happening.

The Virgin sits enthroned with the Child while angels crown her twice over, once in gold and once in roses. She leans down and passes the rosary to Dominic, kneeling in the black and white habit of his order. On the other side the Child is crowning Catherine of Siena, a Dominican as well, who holds out her heart and a lily. Two small angels make music at the foot of the throne.

Nobody has pinned down the year. Brera places it between 1618 and 1625, reasoning that the order probably came alongside the frescoes another Milanese painter was making for the same church around 1620. The convent was suppressed in 1798 and its church has gone from the city, and this canvas, nearly three metres tall, is what survives of that high altar.