The National Art Gallery of Siena is located in the historic center of the city. The Pinacoteca houses the most important collection of Sienese fourteenth and fifteenth century paintings on wood with a gold background. The first nucleus of the collection was born at the end of the eighteenth century thanks to the passion of local scholars who wanted to save the works of art of the most ancient era, of the so-called "primitives", from destruction and alienation. The Museum was inaugurated in the Buonsignori and Brigidi Palaces in 1932 with the scientific ordering of Cesare Brandi who, in 1933, published the catalogue. The most recent history of the Pinacoteca has seen, since the end of the seventies of the last century, a process of exhibition renewal, born on the wave of the many thematic exhibitions, dedicated to the most significant artistic currents represented in the collection. The visit to the museum starts from the second floor where the paintings of the golden age of Sienese Gothic painting are exhibited, from the origins up to the fifteenth century through the masterpieces of Duccio, Simone Martini, the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and the late fourteenth century. In the fifteenth century the refined and imaginative painting of Giovanni di Paolo and Sano di Pietro was reconfirmed, but also the openings to the Renaissance renewal of Sassetta, Vecchietta, Matteo di Giovanni, up to the full adherence to classical culture by Francesco di Giorgio Martini. The first floor bears witness to the artistic evolution towards Mannerism accomplished thanks to the contribution of Domenico Beccafumi, who we find widely represented together with his contemporaries Sodoma, Riccio, Marco Pino, Brescianino. One wing has been dedicated to the painters who from the end of the sixteenth century worked first in the late Mannerist sense and then in the naturalistic sense, impressed by the novelty of Caravaggio: Francesco Vanni, Rutilio Manetti and Bernardino Mei. Also on the second floor, the recently set up of the stone sculpture hall offers the visitor a suggestive panorama over the rooftops of Siena.