The National Pinacotheca (Art Museum) was opened in Bologna at the end of the 18th century in the building of the former Jesuit monastery.

Its founder was a Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, better known as Pope Benedict XIV. According to his idea, the empty cathedral should become the storage of altar paintings, which were brought here from different churches and monasteries of Bologna.

Thus, the first exhibits were the altar paintings of the 15th century, which were delivered from the destroyed church Santa Maria Magdalena. Later, the collection of the museum was enlarged with 12 medieval Byzantine icons. Though, the main part of the paintings was offered by the Institute of the Natural Sciences.

In the middle of the 19th century, the collection of the pieces of art of the Art Museum in Bologna was enlarged a lot. And in 1882 it got the right for self-government.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the building had a reconstruction, owing to it the museum got a new outhouse. At the end of the 1990s, the museum was renewed and modernized for one more time. Now the pinacotheca is included in the best art Italy museums’ list. The visitors can see 30 exhibition rooms and areas, where different thematic events take place.

All the collection of the museum can be divided into 2 categories – the painting of the local artists, making their works in the 13th-18th centuries, and the painters, who created their pieces of art outside Bologna. To the first group, we can refer the paintings of Vitale da Bologna. One of the most popular works is “Saint George with a Dragon”. To the second group – the works of painters from Venice, for example, Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini.

One of the pinacotheca’s rooms is dedicated to the original Italian phenomenon – the Renaissance Epoque. This is a mix of art of the local painters (Francesco del Cos, Lorenzo Costa and Francesco Francia) and the famous geniuses of the Renaissance, such as Raphael ("Ascension of St. Cecilia") and Perugino ("Virgin and Child Jesus and Saints").

In the museum, you can also learn such style of art as mannerism and see the works, made in this style.

A special room is dedicated to the art of a talented painter Guido Reni and its icons. "Crucifixion", "Martyrdom of St. Sebastian" and "Christ in the Crown of Thorns" do not leave anybody indifferent.