A Name for the Milanese ‘Sordo’ and the Master of the Stockholm Pietà

The article reconstructs the identity and career of the Lombard painter known as ‘Il Sordo’ [the Deaf One], an elusive figure documented in Milan from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth centuries. By synthesising archival documents, payment records, and literary sources, it establishes the artist’s probable first name as Camillo
and traces his career from apprentice in Palazzo Ducale to a specialist in the production of small devotional canvases collected by Cardinal Federico Borromeo and other major Milanese patrons. The study presents a new addition to the painter’s catalogue and supports the identification of the artist with the ‘Master of the Stockholm Pietà’, an enigmatic figure proposed in 1950 by Federico Zeri. Finally, the essay reflects on the presence of artists identified by epithets signalling deafness in the history of Italian art and argues that such sensory impairments did not preclude a professional artistic career.