Italian school; second half of the 17th century. "Old woman raising a cat". Oil on canvas. Presents repainting and needs cleaning. Measurements: 49 x 77 cm. During the XVII century the representations of the most underprivileged classes of the society (beggars, beggars, peasants, dwarfs and vagabonds), and of the humblest trades, were specially valued, represented with a great dignity and realism. This trend spread to all artistic fields, so much so that 17th century painting reflects the idiosyncrasy of the Baroque celebrated through opposites, which made the most important personalities of the time coexist in the same space with the lower classes. Thus, in the canvas that concerns us we find ourselves in front of the representation of an old woman, located in the center of the composition, accompanied by two cats, one lying on her lap to which she gives milk from a spoon, tenderly and another located on the floor, looking at the viewer attentively. The scene is close to the work of Giacomo Ceruti (Milan, 1698 - 1767) active in the North of the Italian peninsula (Lombardy, Brescia, and Venice), where he developed a varied and uneven work, hardly any data are known of his early years. From 1726 to 1728 he worked on the fresco decoration of the Palazzo Broletto, the governor's residence, and in those same years he painted a series of paintings of beggars commissioned by the Avogrado family, which earned him the nickname of Pitocchetto (the little beggar). Among his most important commissions was the series of works made in 1736 for the Venetian palace by Marshal Matthias von Schulenburg, an important German collector, a commission to which the Thyssen's work belongs. Also in 1736 he worked on the fresco decoration of the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. From 1737 to 1742 Ceruti lived in Padua where he is documented working for the churches of the Franciscans and Santa Lucia, where an altar dedicated to the saint is preserved. Around 1743 he settled definitively in Milan, with some trips to Piacenza where he received various public commissions, occupied in the painting of sacred subjects and portraits. Dimensions 49 x 77 cm.