Milano, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

The Ambrosian Art Gallery began with the donation of numerous paintings and designs (1618) by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, whose intention was for them to serve above all, as teaching material for the Academy of Fine Arts founded in 1621 alongside the Library. After 1966 the art gallery was reorganised into 14 rooms.
Paintings and sculptures are displayed in chronological order going from the fourteenth century to the beginning of the neoclassic nineteenth century. The most significant works of art it features include "La canestra" by Caravaggio (PHOTO), an ivory diptych by Lippo Vanni, a fourteenth century artist from Siena; the "Madonna del Baldacchino" (Madonna of the Baldachin) by Botticelli; the "Cristo morto" (Dead Christ) by Andrea Mantegna; Bergognone's tablets (including the great altar-piece from the Pavian church of St Peter in Golden Skies); the small pictures of Giovanni Brueghel de Velours. Two rooms house the works of Bramantino and all the Leonardesque artists, from Luini to the lesser-known. In another large room there is a sketch of the "Scuola di Atene" (Athens School) fresco Raphael designed for the Signatura room of the Vatican. There are also paintings by Schiavoni, Moroni, Jacopo Bassano, G.B. Tiepolo, and "Adorazione dei Magi" (Adoration of the Wise Men) by Tiziano.