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| Established | 1776 |
|---|---|
| Location | Via Brera 28,Milan, Italy |
| Coordinates | 45°28′19″N9°11′17″E / 45.47194°N 9.18806°E /45.47194; 9.18806 |
| Director | Angelo Crespi |
| Website | pinacotecabrera |
ThePinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings inMilan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of theBrera Academy, which shares the site in thePalazzo Brera.
ThePalazzo Brera owes its name to the Germanicbraida, indicating a grassy opening in the city structure: compare theBra ofVerona. The convent on the site passed to theJesuits (1572), then underwent a radical rebuilding byFrancesco Maria Richini (1627–28). When theJesuits were disbanded in 1773, the palazzo remained the seat of the astronomicalObservatory and theBraidense National Library founded by the Jesuits. In 1774 the herbarium of the newbotanical garden was added. The buildings were extended to designs byGiuseppe Piermarini, who was appointed professor in the Academy when it was formally founded in 1776, withGiuseppe Parini as dean. Piermarini taught at the Academy for 20 years, while he was controller of the city's urbanistic projects, like the public gardens (1787–1788) and piazza Fontana (1780–1782).
For the better teaching of architecture, sculpture and the other arts, the Academy initiated by Parini was provided with a collection of casts after the Antique, an essential for inculcating a refinedNeoclassicism in the students. Under Parini's successors, theabate Carlo Bianconi (1778–1802) and artistGiuseppe Bossi (1802–1807), the Academy acquired the first paintings of itsPinacoteca during the reassignment of works of Italian art that characterized theNapoleonic era.Raphael'sSposalizio (theMarriage of the Virgin) was the key painting of the early collection, and the Academy increased its cultural scope by taking on associates across theFirst French Empire:David,Pietro Benvenuti,Vincenzo Camuccini,Canova,Thorvaldsen and the archaeologistEnnio Quirino Visconti.
In 1805, under Bossi's direction, the series of annual exhibitions was initiated with a system of prizes, a counterpart of theParis Salons, which served to identify Milan as the cultural capital for contemporary painting in Italy through the 19th century. The Academy's artistic committee, theCommissione di Ornato exercised a controlling influence on public monuments, a precursor of today's Sopraintendenze Delle Belle Arti.
The opening of the new "Reale Pinacoteca" was celebrated on 15 August 1809, Napoleon's birthday. The paintings were displayed in three of the four Napoleonic halls with pavilion vaults. Fundamental paintings byBellini,Mantegna,Carpaccio,Titian,Veronese andTintoretto had entered the gallery.[1]
TheRomantic era witnessed the triumph of academic history painting, guided at the Academy byFrancesco Hayez, and the introduction of the landscape as an acceptable academic genre, inspired by Williamo's Davias and his more known cousinGiuseppe Bisi, while the Academy moved towards becoming an institution for teaching the history of art.
In 1882, the Paintings Gallery was separated from the Academy andGiuseppe Bertini was appointed as its first director. Bertini was succeeded by Corrado Ricci who, during his direction from 1898–1903, established the Photo Library and systematically reorganized the Picture Gallery according to schools and periods.
In 1903, the Pinacoteca opened 19 new rooms that allowed the exhibition of over 100 newly acquired works, such asBramante's frescoes from the Visconti Panigarola house. The art historian and critic Antonio Morassi, who served as director at the Pinacoteca from 1934 to 1939, opened up the collection to 19th century painting and a new exhibition dominated by paintings byHayez was created. There was also a precursory opening to the purchase of 20th century paintings, such asGuttuso's Portrait ofAlberto Moravia andMafai's "Modelli nello studio".[1]
TheBrera Observatory hosted the astronomerGiovanni Schiaparelli for four decades, and theOrto Botanico di Brera is a historicbotanical garden located behind the Pinacoteca.
In 2024, the museum's modern art wing was opened at the Palazzo Citterio as part of efforts to showcase its modern art collection that had expanded following donations in the 1970s and 1980s and to mark the completion of the "Grande Brera" project to merge the Palazzo Citterio, the Pinacoteca di Brera, and the Braidense Library.[2][3]
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