Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo
Completely renovated in 2018, the Pinacoteca houses a splendid and selected art collection in the elegant premises of Palazzo Martinengo da Barco.
In rooms finely lined with coloured velvets and frescoed ceilings, visitors encounter the works of masters such as Raphael, Lorenzo Lotto, Vincenzo Foppa, Savoldo, Romanino, Moretto, Giacomo Ceruti, Andrea Appiani, Antonio Canova, Berthel Thorvaldsen and Francesco Hayez, as well as marvellous sculptures, refined Venetian glass, and curious cabinets populated by pygmies.
The chronologically ordered display of paintings and exquisite decorative art objects starts with 14th century works, followed by masterpieces such as Raphael’s world-famous Angel and Christ Blessing and Lorenzo Lotto’s Adoration of the Shepherds. The real heart of the collection is Renaissance Brescia’s painting with artworks by Vincenzo Foppa, Romanino, Savoldo and Moretto. These masterpieces focus on the representation of reality and culminate to the strikingly human pictures of Giacomo Ceruti, such as Beggars. The exhibition itinerary ends with great works commissioned by local collectors from Neoclassical and Romantic ages, such as Angelica Kauffmann, Andrea Appiani, Berthel Thorvaldsen, Antonio Canova and Francesco Hayez.
The Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo collection was formed between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries thanks to the generosity of private citizens who donated their collections and to the care the Municipality put into collecting and preserving works of art and historical memories that had defined the identity of the city over time and that the important administrative and urban transformations that began at the end of the eighteenth century were gradually removing from their original uses.
We recommend buying tickets before the visit.
