Pinacoteca di Brera

The Pinacoteca di Brera was founded in 1809 by Napoleon I, who wanted Milan, capital of his Kingdom of Italy, to have a museum rivaling the Louvre. The collection grew through Napoleon's requisition of artworks from suppressed churches and convents across northern Italy, transforming a modest academic collection into a major repository of Italian art. Raphael's Marriage of the Virgin became the key painting of the early collection.

Today the museum holds the foremost collection of Italian paintings from the 13th to 20th centuries, with the largest collection of Venetian art outside Venice. Andrea Mantegna's Lamentation of Christ and Giovanni Bellini's Pieta represent the Renaissance. Umberto Boccioni and other Futurist works show Italian modernism.

Luca Signorelli's The Flagellation and Correggio's Adoration of the Magi add depth to the museum's Renaissance rooms beyond the two headline works. An exchange with the Louvre brought Flemish paintings by Rubens, Jordaens, and Van Dyck. The Palazzo Citterio modern wing opened in 2024 as part of the "Grande Brera" project.