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''Portrait of Paolo Morigia'' is a 1592–1595 oil on canvas painting by 
Its subject is the historian and Jesuit Paolo Morigia, holding spectacles in his left hand and writing the lyrics of a
''Portrait of Paolo Morigia'' is a 1592–1595 oil on canvas painting by Fede Galizia
Fede Galizia, better known as Galizia, ( 1578 – 1630) was an Italian Renaissance painter of still-lifes, portraits, and religious pictures. She is especially noted as a painter of still-lifes of fruit, a genre in which she was one of the earlie ...
, painted for the church of San Gerolamo in Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and donated in 1670 to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
A pinacotheca (Latin borrowing from grc, πινακοθήκη, pinakothēkē = grc, πίναξ, pinax, (painted) board, tablet, label=none + grc, θήκη, thēkē, box, chest, label=none) was a picture gallery in either ancient Greece or an ...
in the same city, where it still hangs.
Fogolari described and dated the work based on the inscription at the top, which reads "FIDES GALICIA VIRGO PUDICISS. AETAT SUAE ANN. XVIII OPUS HOC F. PAULI MORIGII SIMULACRUM ANN. 72 GRATI ANIMI ERGO EFFINXIT. ANNO 1596". Later archival research by Berra showed that the inscription was spurious, however.
Its subject is the historian and Jesuit Paolo Morigia, holding spectacles in his left hand and writing the lyrics of a madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...
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
Giovanni Battista Moroni ( – 5 February 1579) was an Italian painter of the Late Renaissance period. He also is called Giambattista Moroni. Best known for his elegantly realistic portraits of the local nobility and clergy, he is conside ...
's realism and the physiognomical studies then particularly popular in Lombardy thanks to Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
.
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.". They are autobiographical and translate as "I once was GALIZIA FEDE / Who wanted to keep me alive after my death / Here expiring, and here alive, it points me to you." To the right is her book ''Historia dell'antichità di Milano'', published in Venice in 1592. In his following book, the 1595 ''La nobiltà di Milano'', Morigia praised a portrait of him by Fede Galizia.Paolo Morigia, ''La nobilta di Milano, diuisa in sei libri. Nel primo, si narra di tutti i santi, e beati, di patria milanesi. ... Nel secondo, si descriuono tutti i papi, cardinali, ... milanesi. Nel terzo, si ragiona di tutti i letterati. ... Nel quarto, si tratta di tutti i rè, ... famosi nella militia dell'istessa patria. ... Nel quinto, si fauella de' pittori, scultori, ... Nel sesto, leggesi le grandezze de' milanesi, ... Del R.P.F. Paolo Morigia milanese, de' Giesuati di S. Girolamo'', page 282 This allows the work to be securely dated between 1592 and 1595.
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