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About BRERA Pinacoteca
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The History of the Pinacoteca and Palazzo Brera
The palazzo was built on the remains of a 14th century monastery of the Umiliati order, which was subsequently given to the Jesuits, who founded a school here. Francesco Maria Richini began in the early 17th century to turn it into the solidly austere building we see today. When the Jesuits were disbanded in 1773, the Collegio di Brera became state property and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria decided to use it to house several of the city's leading cultural institutes. In addition to the Accademia di Belle Arti, she also assigned the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, the Osservatorio Astronomico and the Orto Botanico to her new foundation.
The man commissioned to design and execute the work was Giuseppe Piermarini, one of Italy's leading Neoclassical architects. He was responsible for renovating the library (one room of which can be seen in the Pinacoteca, or picture gallery), for building the solemn entrance on Via Brera and for completing the courtyard. A bronze statue of Napoleon in the guise of Mars the Peacemaker, cast in Rome to a design by Antonio Canova was erected in the center of the courtyard in 1859. Porticos, courtyards, hallways and corridors were chosen throughout the 19th century as settings for monuments publicly celebrating artists, benefactors, humanists and scientists associated with Brera and the Braidense. The best works in this extremely rich and little-known collection include the monuments to Cesare Beccaria by Pompeo Marchesi and to Giuseppe Parini by Gaetano Monti which can be admired on the monumental staircase leading up to the Pinacoteca.
The Brera Gallery was officially established in 1809, even though a first heterogeneous collection with educational purpose existed already from 1776 - and then increased in the following years - alongside the Accademia di Belle Arti, requested by Maria Theresa of Austria to offer the students the opportunity to study lofty masterpieces of art close up.
Brera became a museum to host the most important works of art from all of the areas conquered by the French armies commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte. So, unlike other important museums in Italy such as the Uffizi, Brera did not start out life as the private collection of a prince or nobleman but as the product of a deliberate policy decision.
Paintings confiscated from churches and convents throughout Lombardy with the religious orders' dissolution due to suppression began to pour into the museum in the early years of the 19th century, soon to be joined by artworks of similar provenance from other areas of the Kingdom of Italy. This explains why the collection comprises chiefly religious works, many of them large altarpieces, and accounts for Brera's special aura on which later acquisitions have had only a minor impact.
Pinacoteca di Brera
www.pinacotecabrera.org
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