Archival documents demonstrate that Cerano was working for the Borromeo family in Milan by 1591, and it seems likely that the young artist was sent in the last decade of the sixteenth century to the Roman household of Cardinal Federico Borromeo in Piazza Navona. There, he would have had the chance to study first hand the work of Michelangelo and the paintings by Barocci for the Oratorians in the Chiesa Nuova.
Federico took up residence as archbishop of Milan in 1601, and Cerano was given a leading role in every major artistic project initiated by the Cardinal for the next thirty years, including several canvases for the first cycle of scenes of the life of Carlo Borromeo to be hung in the Cathedral as part of the canonization process begun in 1601, and frescoes and altarpieces for the church of Sant Maria presso San Celso where Cerano was assisted by Giulio Cesare Procaccini.
