Ferdinando Brambilla (Milan, 1838-1921) Reading Nun Oil on canvas, 60.5x49 cm Signed and dated lower right "Brambilla 1868" The painting depicts a nun caught in the intimate and personal act of reading sacred scriptures. At the center of the composition, the figure of the religious woman dominates the scene, dressed in a dark habit and a white veil that frames her face. Her gaze, sweet and absorbed, is directed towards the observer, a serene and slightly questioning expression that invites direct eye contact. In her hands, she holds an open book, whose pages seem to absorb her attention, although momentarily distracted. Behind her, through a large window, a glimpse of Milan can be seen: the imposing neo-Gothic spires built on the Terraces of the Milan Cathedral are clearly visible; The Terraces of the Duomo were conceived by the architects from the very beginning of the construction, a choice that testifies to how much they had assimilated the structural patterns of international Gothic according to their own sensibility, borrowed from the Lombard construction tradition. On the Terraces stand 135 spires rich in ornaments, most of them measuring approximately 17 meters; the largest, the Main Spire, was built in the years 1765 - 1770 under the direction of the architect Francesco Croce. At its summit shines the statue depicting the Virgin Mary Assumed into Heaven, the Madonnina, made of embossed gold copper sheets. The work was placed to crown the Gran Guglia at the end of 1774 and has since protected the city and our Cathedral. There are over 3,400 statues, 150 gargoyles, 96 giants, 410 corbels for statues, along with flying buttresses, copings, and of course a silent population of saints and martyrs who watch over the Monument. The spectacular view that can be glimpsed from the window behind the nun might lead us to imagine that the religious woman is near the ancient convent of San Maurizio al monastero maggiore. The light that filters from the outside delicately illuminates the nun's face and the pages of the book, creating an atmosphere of quiet and contemplation. Overall, the painting conveys a sense of calm and devotion, suggesting a moment of study or personal reflection. Ferdinando Brambilla was born in Milan on July 8, 1838. At Brera, he attended the school of Sogni, oscillating between neo-Renaissance and romantic modes, and then moved to those of Hayez and Casnedi. With the latter, he collaborated on the fresco decoration - later replaced by mosaics and now lost - of the octagon of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan (lunettes of America and Art). As a fresco painter, Brambilla was also active at the Tempio dell'Incoronata in Lodi, where he painted the allegorical figures of the pilaster strips on the upper floor, carried out with a certain pictorial warmth, the Deeds of S. Marco in the chapel dedicated to the saint in S. Simpliciano in Milan. In his oil paintings of the early period, he preferred the historical theme, not insensitive to the modes of theatrical melodrama, as can be seen in Margherita degli Acciaiuoli and the junk dealer Giovanni dalla Palla, which won the Brera triennial prize in 1867 (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera). Other awarded works were the Pompeian Bath of 1872 and the Slave Market in Morocco, Prince Umberto Prize at the Brera Exhibition (cfr. Illustraz. ital., Sept. 21, 1879, p. 183), once in the Cusani Visconti collection in Milan. He died in Milan in 1921 after a career studded with various academic awards. From the 1840s onwards, also due to the incredible popularity of the figure of the nun of Monza in I Promessi Sposi (it is necessary to remember that, in the so-called Ventisettana edition, the episode of Gertrude appeared further deepened compared to what happens in the definitive version, the Quarantana), the representation of religious is common as far as the Italian pictorial panorama is concerned: to confirm this phenomenon, it is enough to think of the intriguing representations of the fascinating Manzoni character enacted by Giuseppe Molteni and Mosè Bianchi and the representation of a beautiful and young nun proposed by the now elderly Francesco Hayez in the final stages of his career in 1879. The great success of the neo-Gothic novel, often characterized by a convent setting, of which The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis is one of the first testimonies, further increases this phenomenon.