The Pinacoteca gallery is located within the Palazzo dell'Accademia, a neo-classical building built between 1805 and 1910 by Simone Elia. It was founded in 1795 by Count Giacomo Carrara, a merchant collector, who at his death bequeathed his collection to the city of Bergamo. This collection has grown thanks to more aquisitions and private donations (which were rearranged in chronological order in 1955).
Today the Pinacoteca holds 1800 works from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, originating from the Lombard and venetian schools of painting, as well as from Tuscan and Flemmish artists. In addition to this collection there is also a large series of prints, bronzes, sculptures, porcelain and furniture.
As well as rooms dedicated to the Lombard painters, like the seventeenth century painter G.B. Moroni or Lorenzo Lotto, who was very active in Bergamo for a long period of time, there are also gallery rooms dedicated to the fifteenth century Florentine painters, such as Botticelli, Signorelli, Donatello, Beato Angelico, and rooms full of the works of venetian fifteenth century painters such as Mantegna, Antonello da Messina, Bellini. Examples of venetian art from 1400-1500 included works by Bergognone, Cima da Conegliano and Mazzolino.
The Gallery of Modern Art, next to the Accademia Carrara in a fifteenth century convent, has a further collection of prestigious modern works and temporary exhibitions
Milan