An angel looking up, holding a scroll

Professor Giulio Bora has kindly pointed out that this drawing was made for the figure of an angel in Caresana's fresco of the Holy Trinity in Glory of 1614 in the vault of the Church of Sant'Orsola, Como (Mina Gregori et al., Pittura a Como e nel Canton Ticino: dal Mille al Settecento, Milan, 1994, fig. 93). Caresana's first master was his uncle Giovanni Battista Tarilli, with whom he worked in Giornico, north of Lugano. After 1594 he worked at Milan Cathedral and the Church of Santa Maria Passerella, and is recorded at Ticino, around Lake Como and in the Val Chiavenna. His surviving work is very much in the tradition of Gaudenzio Ferrari and Camillo Procaccini. Only two other drawings by Caresana have been identified, both in the same technique as the present drawing and studies for Caresana's Assumption of the Virgin in the Church of San Federico, Como (G. Bora, 'Due secoli d'arte a Milano: La pittura in Santa Maria dell Passione', in Santa Maria della Passione e il Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi a Milano, Milan, 1981, p. 161). We are grateful for Professor Bora's help in preparing this note.