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Home > Italy Travel Guide > Pinacoteca di Brera

Pinacoteca di Brera

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Introduction
History
Location

ATTRACTIONS

Art Works

INFORMATION

Useful information
Links

Introduction

On the first floor of the Palazzo di Brera is the Pinacoteca di Brera which contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings, an outgrowth of the cultural program of the Accademia di Belle Arti (“Academy of Fine Arts” or Accademia di Brera), which shares the site in the Palazzo Brera. The Brera contains among many other exhibits futuristic paintings of the 20th century. The collections are particularly important in understanding the history of the visual art in northern Italy between the 14th and 18th centuries. There are also excellent examples of Renaissance works, and famous, if not numerous, paintings by other Italian and foreign Old Masters. Only some of the rooms of the Pinacoteca are open to the public. The chief strength of the Pinacoteca di Brera lies in the works by the north Italian masters.

History

It was initially founded by the Hapsburgs in the late 18th century, as a small collection of paintings, sculptures and plaster copies to be used by the Accademia's student body. Its patrimony came from churches and the estates of Catholic clerical orders that had been suppressed not long before (the building which housed the Accademia had formerly been the Milanese headquarters of the Jesuit order).

The art collection was dramatically enlarged during the Napoleonic era between 1799-1815, when it received an extraordinary number of art works confiscated from all over the North of Italy. Literally thousands of paintings were therefore indiscriminately confiscated from churches and private collections in all of the French-occupied Northern-Italian regions: Lombardy, Veneto (and of course Venice), a large chunk of Emilia Romagna and the Marche. In 1809 the great new museum opened its doors to the public.

In 1882 the Pinacoteca was officially separated from the Accademia and thus became, to all effects and purposes, one of the Italian State's main art museums. This role has not necessarily helped Brera. After WW2, for instance, intense conflicts arose between the State, the superintendents of this State-owned gallery, the civic administrators and the Church. As a result, the chronic need for new space to provide for better placement of the material stored still awaits a satisfactory solution. And there's another problem. Although Brera now has many paintings that did not originally belong in Milan, many of Brera's paintings are no longer on its premises (exhibited or in storage): they are on compulsory loan elsewhere, in the most varied locations - in other museums and churches, or in Italian Embassies abroad - often in places which have no relation whatsoever to the paintings' places of origin.

In the last few decades, under the direction of Franco Russoli and then of Carlo Bertelli, Brera had made marked improvements to the exhibition of its treasures, which had increased in number thanks also to the addition of two outstanding private Milanese collections of modern art, the first being the Donazione Jesi (a permanent purchase), the other the Deposito Jucker (on loan).

After Carlo Bertelli resigned from his post in the late 1980s the management of the museum took a bureaucratic turn, plunging Brera into a nightmare period of uncertainty. The Jucker collection was withdrawn, and even the cafeteria disappeared. Fortunately, in the 1990s the situation changed again, and the management has succeeded in improving the Pinacoteca's situation. Rooms long barred have finally been opened to the public, the acquisition policy has been resumed, and Brera is now even getting ready to resume an old project by Russoli and Bertelli: turning into exhibition halls the 18th-century Palazzo Citterio at Via Brera 12-14.

Location

Address: Via Brera 28 20121 Milano
Transit: Underground: Lanza stop - Green (2) line; Montenapoleone stop - Yellow (3) line.
Tram: 1-4-8-12-14-27
Bus: 61-97

Art Works

Notable among 15th century pictures are works by Mantegna (“Madonna in a Ring of Angels' Heads” and “Lamentation”). The Venetian masters are represented by Carlo Crivelli (including “Enthroned Madonna della Candeletta”), Gentile (“Preaching of St Mark in Alexandria”), Giovanni Bellini (“Lamentation” and two Madonnas) and Cima da Conegliano. Pictures from later periods include works by Paolo Veronese, Titian (“Count Antonio Porcia” and “St Jerome”) and Tintoretto (“Finding of St Mark's Body” and “Descent from the Cross”, and portraits by Lorenzo Lotto and Giovanni Battista Moroni. The Lombard masters, disciples of Leonardo da Vinci, are well represented, with works by Bramantino, Sodoma, De Predis, Boltraffio and Andrea Solario. Artists of the Ferrarese school include Ercole de' Roberti (“Madonna with Saints”) and Dosso Dossi. Coreggio of Parma is represented by a “Nativity” and an “Adoration of the Kings”. There is an excellent representation of the Umbrian school, including works by Gentile da Fabriano (“Coronation of the Virgin with Saints”), Piero della Francesca (“Madonna with Saints and Duke Federico da Montefeltro”) and Bramante (eight frescoes “Christ of the Column”). The most famous picture in the gallery is Raphael's “Marriage of the Virgin” (“Lo Sposalizio”), the finest work of his first period. There are also important works by 17th and 18th century artists. Outstanding among foreign masters are Rembrandt (portraits of women, including “The Artist's Sister”), Van Dyck (“Princess Amalie of Solms”), Rubens (“Last Supper”) and El Greco (“St Francis”). The Jesi collection is particularly significant for Futurist, Metaphysical and Novecento painting (Boccioni, Carra, Sironi, Severini, Morandi, De Pisis), and for sculpture (Medardo Rosso, Martini and Marini). A Woman with Guitar by Massimo Campigli was acquired.

Useful information

Telephone: (+39) 02722631
Fax: (+39) 0272001140
Email: brera.artimi@arti.beniculturali.it
Open: Tuesday - Sunday 8:30 am - 7:30 pm (ticket office open from 8:30 am until 6:45 pm)
Closed: Monday
New Year's Day (January 1)
May Day / Labor Day (May 1)
Christmas - Christian (December 25)
Disabled: Full facilities for persons with disabilities.

Links

Offical site

Brera Gallery Official site (in English)

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