Made by Mantegna immediately after the works for the Camera degli Sposi in Mantua (1465-1474), the painting is characterized by the plastic, almost sculptural strength of the figures and the refinement of the execution, which in the Virgin's mantle combines the precious lapis lazuli blue with gold hatching. The dull and dusty shades are the result of the adoption of the tempera technique, which Mantegna prefers and which he uses by spreading thin layers of color on a very fine linen cloth.

Made by Mantegna immediately after the works for the Camera degli Sposi in Mantua (1465-1474), the painting is characterized by the plastic, almost sculptural strength of the figures and the refinement of the execution, which in the Virgin's mantle combines the precious lapis lazuli blue with gold hatching. The dull and dusty shades are the result of the adoption of the tempera technique, which Mantegna prefers and which he uses by spreading thin layers of color on a very fine linen cloth.

The painting illustrates an episode of Roman history narrated by Tito Livio and taken up by Petrarch and Boccaccio. The decemvir Appius Claudius, who fell in love with the young Virginia, already promised to the tribune Lucio Icilio, instructs Marcus Claudius to kidnap her, pretending that she is his escaped slave. Virginia is brought before the court, presided over by Appio himself, who declares her a slave to Mark. Her father, Lucio Virginio, kills her to prevent her honor from being tarnished. The narrative ends with the pain of the relatives and with the expulsion of the decemvirs from Rome.

The work was painted by Raphael when he was not yet twenty years old, but it stands out for its extraordinary executive finesse and for the almost miraculous ability of gradation of light, which envelops the figure in a sweet and dreamy atmosphere. It was created for the private devotion of a refined client, and this explains the aristocratic interpretation of the iconography of the saint, who holds the arrow symbol of martyrdom in his hand. Initially active in Perugino's workshop, Raphael worked in Siena, perhaps as a collaborator of Pintoricchio, and then saw his definitive success in Florence at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

Together with two panels preserved in a private collection and at the Museum of Art in Columbia, the panel made up the predella of the altarpiece commissioned by the Augustinians of Cesena in 1513 and now in Milan, at the Brera Art Gallery. Masterpiece of the artist, the painting was executed between 1516 and 1518, reworking the different experiences carried out in central Italy: from Luca Signorelli, first master of Genga, up to Raphael and Michelangelo, who are inspired in particular by the muscular bodies .

The composition takes up the pattern of the Sacred Conversation, with the Madonna in the center and the saints arranged on the sides. The figures, however, are not isolated from each other but interact animatedly: the lively pose of the Child, leaning towards the jar of ointments, triggers a motion that affects the other characters, binding them indissolubly. The luxuriant beauty of the Virgin and Magdalene recalls the flourishing female figures protagonists of numerous other works by the artist.

It is one of the first paintings made by Titian and shows how the young artist developed the research of Bellini and Giorgione on the expressive power of colour. The group of the Madonna and Child is immersed in a vast natural landscape and presents a new and surprising monumentality, while a warm and melted pictorial material defines the forms not through drawing but through large chromatic fields.

It is one of Lotto's oldest works and testifies to the complex figurative culture that characterized the artist's early days. The setting of the portrait, built on the inclined oval of the face, and the rigorous study of the light, which caresses the shapes, cutting them out from the black background, refer to the Venetian works of Antonello da Messina. The clear and enameled execution, in particular of the details, such as the copper-colored curls that seem embossed in the metal, is linked to Flemish painting.

The Brembati family crest engraved on one of the rings and the letters "CI" in the center of the moon form the puzzle that refers to the name of Lucina, wife of Leonino Brembati, a leading figure in Bergamo in the early sixteenth century. Lucina exhibits a showy 'hair': an elaborate hairstyle of real hair or hairpieces that were gathered from a net and decorated with ribbons or jewels that formed a sort of garland or turban on the nape.

Signed and dated 1523 on the wooden footrest, it is one of the most famous works of Lotto's Bergamo living room, admirable for the restless sweetness of the central group and the precious enamelled colors. The canvas was commissioned by the Bergamo merchant Niccolò Bonghi, depicted behind the Madonna. The neutral gray surface replaces the original landscape background, perhaps cut by a French soldier between 1527 and 1528.

Molenaer mainly dedicates himself to genre subjects, depicting scenes of everyday life. These paintings are not only a minute chronicle of Dutch society of the time, but sometimes hide a deeper meaning. The smoker was a very popular theme and his depiction should also be understood as a warning not to indulge in voluptuous pleasures. The young man from Molenaer observes us with an absorbed gaze, stretching his legs to warm himself by the fire in the fireplace: spirals of smoke rise from his pipe and evaporate into the air, while an empty glass swings in his left hand.

One of Previtali's best-known works, where the artist looks to Lorenzo Lotto, who was active in Bergamo at the time, but without betraying the teachings of his teacher, Giovanni Bellini. The pattern of the Holy Conversation is used in an unusual way. The commissioners of the painting, Paolo and Agnese Cassotti, are placed at the top, next to the Madonna and Child, in the eminent position usually reserved for the saints, who instead are placed below, humbly kneeling in prayer.

It is a work of great charm due to the skilful use of light and the harmonious line of the volumes. The subject takes up a theme of medieval origin that will be completely abandoned with the Catholic Counter-Reformation because it was considered unworthy. Boltraffio was able to interpret Leonardo's lesson independently, combining it with the influence of classicism by artists such as Lorenzo Costa and Francesco Francia, learned during his stay in Bologna at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

The elderly gentleman is perhaps the historian and scholar Pietro Spino, a native of Albino like Moroni. He wears a fur-lined surcoat and holds the armrest of the Dantesque with his right hand, while in his left he holds a small book. He has just stopped reading and stares at us with a questioning look, as if we had disturbed him. The large backdrop increases the psychological intensity of the portrait, played on a highly selected range of grays, browns and blacks.

Exponent of a Bergamo family of ancient tradition, Giovanni Secco Suardo surrenders himself to our eyes dressed informally, with his shirt undone, his head shaved, without a wig, in the presence of a servant of unforgettable physical truth. The contrast between the slightly stiff expression of the gentleman and the winking and shrewd expression of the servant is the true subject of the painting, also masterful in terms of the pictorial technique of chromatic splendor.

The painting belonged to a series of six canvases, three with musical instruments and three with kitchen interiors, probably commissioned from Baschenis by the noble Lupi family from Bergamo and now dispersed among museums and private collections. The objects are arranged with apparent randomness on a table covered with a green cloth and the image is dominated by absolute silence and magical stillness, where the ineluctable passage of time is marked only by the dust that settles on the objects.

Like many other painters of the time, Tiepolo fixed the general lines of the composition of a painting or fresco in sketches or models to be submitted to clients for preliminary approval. These works also fueled a flourishing collectors' market, made up of connoisseurs who appreciated the freshness of the first idea and the more immediate testimony of the master's hand. The canvas is a sketch of the altarpiece created by the artist for the Cathedral of Bergamo between 1743 and 1745.

Canaletto takes up the Grand Canal from a frame already used in the landscape tradition. In the foreground, on the left, the facade of Palazzo Balbi can be distinguished, on the right you can recognize the Erizzo, Contarini and Mocenigo palaces, while the Rialto bridge can be glimpsed just in the distance. The exact registration of the topographical reality of the city and the careful observation of the light come together in restoring an imperturbable and eternal image of eighteenth-century Venice.

The canvas depicts the culminating episode of the story of Caterina Cornaro, so popular in the first half of the nineteenth century that it became the starting point for several historical novels and operas. Giorgio Cornaro informs his sister Caterina, Queen of Cyprus, that the Republic of Venice has decided to dismiss her and announces her future confinement in the castle of Asolo. The painting is constructed like the scene of a melodrama, through a skilful direction of the lights and an effective study of poses and gestures.

The portrait depicts the wife and daughter of Emilio Gallavresi, lawyer and politician, deputy for the socialist party in the Italian parliament. Realized from life, in the artist's studio, the painting has a monumental format and is executed with a painting of intense expressive force and vitality, in a sort of challenge to the pressing success of photography in the field of portraiture. The canvas is located in the heart of the Bergamo season of Tallone, a teacher for several years at the School of Painting of the Carrara Academy.

The story of the two unfortunate lovers, immortalized by Dante in a famous song from Hell, is one of the most exploited themes in nineteenth-century painting. Previati provides a vigorous and dark interpretation, which stands out for its exasperated naturalism and melodramatic emphasis. The scene presents a claustrophobic horizontal format and the figures of Paolo and Francesca stand out in the foreground lying on their deathbed, both pierced by the same sword.

The image of the reader was widespread in nineteenth-century painting, but the meaning of the work goes beyond the choice of the theme. In Santina Negri's veiled gaze of melancholy, the artist expressed her sorrow for the death of her sister Antonietta, who passed away a few weeks earlier. The setting of the portrait derives from Tallone, Pellizza's master at the Carrara Academy, while the construction of the space by bright colored planes spread over large backgrounds recalls the painting of the Macchiaioli.