St Charles Borromeo Visiting Plague Victims in Milan

This work has an important documentary value - apart from the Milanese Cardinal Charles Borromeo, the painter represented himself as following his namesake (in Czech, Karel means Charles). The painting also captured Max Antonius Cassinis who commissioned the canvas for the church of the Virgin Mary and St Charles Borromeo at the Italian hospital in Prague. The painter recorded the donor’s name on the predella of the altar. The centre of the composition is occupied by the altar featuring a Marian image, below which three saints, patrons against illnesses, are depicted. The columns of the altar show votive presents expressing thanks for various cures. In the little depth of the space in this composition, Škréta reflected Caravaggio’s paintings, while the muscular male figures on the left reveal this artist’s good knowledge of Michelangelo’s figures.