Mantegna's Dead Christ and Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin
In the bohemian district of Brera, in a seventeenth century palace that also houses the Academy of Fine Arts, the Pinacoteca di Brera is one of the most important art galleries in Italy. It was founded by Napoleon at the beginning of the nineteenth century, who gathered here paintings from churches and convents suppressed in northern Italy, so the collection is especially rich in Lombard and Venetian art.
Among its masterpieces are Mantegna's Lamentation over the Dead Christ, with its astonishing foreshortening; Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin, painted at only 21; Piero della Francesca's Brera Altarpiece with the egg hanging from the shell; works by Giovanni Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus; and the famous Kiss by Francesco Hayez, a symbol of the Risorgimento. In the courtyard stands a bronze statue of Napoleon as Mars. The Brera district around it, with its cobbled streets, galleries and cafés, is one of the most charming in Milan.
Tip: the Brera Botanical Garden, behind the palace, is a quiet green corner; the restoration laboratory can be seen through a glass wall during the visit.
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