The Stuard collection represents the outcome of the brilliant and generous intuition of Giuseppe Stuard (Parma, 1790-1834), administrator of the Congregation of San Filippo Neri.

The exhibition itinerary, from the 14th and 15th centuries to the 20th century, includes works from various artistic and pictorial cultures, archaeological finds, frescoes, engravings, paintings, sculptures, medals, furniture and objects. The small central double cloister acts as a screen and backdrop.

The first room opens onto the Sacellum of San Paolo, the first devotional architectural nucleus around which the monastery of San Paolo was built, with a splendid single-lancet window and hemispherical dome. This is followed by the pre-medieval and medieval archaeological heritage obtained following the important archaeological excavations carried out during the restoration works. The rest is a succession of large and small paintings with a predominantly religious theme. This is followed by other valuable paintings from Siena and Florence and, finally, a drawing depicting a greyhound recognized by Parmigianino, which has now become the symbol of the art gallery. The museum itinerary continues on the upper floor, inside the former monastery, built in the year 1000 by Bishop Sigifredo II for the Benedictine nuns of San Paolo.

An important innovation consists in the transfer to the Art Gallery of paintings preserved in the Town Hall building: these are Christ and the Canaanite by Annibale Carracci, Apelles portraying Campaspe in the presence of Alexander the Great by Mattia Preti, the Portrait of Ranuccio II Farnese and the Portrait of Isabella d'Este by Frans Denys, a Landscape with Knights by Ilario Spolverini, Saint John the Evangelist by Giovanni Riccò, the Lotus Flower and the Exodus by Amedeo Bocchi.

The first rooms on the upper floor have been enriched with paintings by nineteenth-century artists linked to the Academy of Fine Arts of Parma, such as Enrico Bandini and Giovan Battista Borghesi, nineteenth-century masterpieces divided into genres and created by well-known local artists such as Guido and Giulio Carmignani , Alberto Pasini, Claudio Alessandri, Luigi Marchesi, Enrico Sartori, Deogratias Lasagna, Carlo Rimondi, Daniele De Strobel, Giorgio Scherer, Enrico Barbieri, Cecrope Barilli; finally, the last room hosts a rich selection of works by Amedeo Bocchi.