Since its opening, the Capuchin Museum has exhibited a precious drawing by Camillo Procaccini closely linked to the altarpiece of the ancient Milanese church of the Immaculate Conception, that of the convent of Porta Orientale.

The news regarding the provenance of the drawing dates back to the 19th century when a member of the noble Pezzoli family gave it to the Capuchin friars, who have always been firm supporters of the Immaculate Conception of Mary sanctioned by Pope Pius IX with a dogma on 8 December 1854. It is probable therefore that Pezzoli donated it on that occasion to the Capuchin friars.

The work, which appears as a collage composed of at least three parts cut out and glued on cardboard, due to the accuracy of the workmanship and the precision of many details is to be considered as an autonomous work in close relationship with the altarpiece that Procaccini created for the church of the Immaculate Conception. " The panel on the Altar in Painting, in which Our Lady looks in the midst of a large group of Angels, also treading a snake with St. Francis in the upper right, colored Camillo Procaccini ", this is how Carlo Torre describes the altarpiece. altar of the Convent of Porta Orientale in his guide Portrait of Milan , in 1714.

This church was suppressed and destroyed in 1810. Many of his works were lost but today it is considered that the altarpiece is identifiable in the one kept in the church of Ognissanti in San Giorgio in Bergamo.

The work presents a rare iconographic solution of the Immaculate Conception: surrounded by a celestial glory (with the Trinity and the angels divided into ranks, extraordinarily characterized with iconographic references that refer to the biblical text), with a crown of twelve stars but without the moon under his feet, the Virgin crushes the dragon (which has only one head instead of the seven described in the book of Revelation). Near her, St. Francis in the Capuchin habit, kneeling, offers her a lily among the thorns ( lilium inter spinas : quotation from the Song of Songs describing the election of the beloved, who has become the image of Mary). In the cartouche that wraps the branch of lilies and thorns we read “Sic Tu Mater Nostra” which confirms that the Virgin Mary is, like the beloved of the Song of Songs, a lily among the thorns, chosen among all women.