LOMBARD PAINTER OF THE 18TH CENTURY Portrait of a Girl Oil on canvas, 120X94 cm The painting, of high quality and beautiful conservation, depicts a little girl with a bird eating a walnut and a cat. The style and writing suggest the Lombard origin of the author; indeed, the canvas bore a collector's attribution to Carlo Ceresa (San Giovanni Bianco, 1609 ; Bergamo, 1679). Nevertheless, the aesthetic value reflects a more refined and less dramatic execution than that of the artist from Bergamo, as does the date of execution, which appears to be earlier, still linked to 16th-century courtly models. Having said this, the face of the effigy is as empathetic as ever, one could say speaking in its easy psychological introspection and for the immediate relationship it has with the observer, thanks to the shy smile and the gaze characterised by cerulean eyes. As mentioned, the outcome is of extraordinary pictorial and human happiness, suggesting a date around 1620 and the execution of an artist active in Milan.