Pinacoteca dell’Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti

Set up in 1837 in the premises of the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Gallery was established with declaredly didactic aims, as is attested by the two important nuclei that have been part of it since its inception: the picture gallery of Archbishop Mossi di Morano, rich in over two hundred paintings, and the collection of sixty sixteenth-century cartoons by Gaudenzio Ferrari and his School, donated by Carlo Alberto. Both nuclei were in fact, by the explicit wish of the donors, to form an integral part of the artistic education of their pupils.
The first five rooms are dedicated to paintings donated by Monsignor Mossi di Morano, with 15th-16th century artists of the Florentine school - Filippo Lippi - and Piedmontese school - Martino Spanzotti and Defendente Ferrari, 16th-17th century artists of the Ligurian school, Caravaggio painters - Bartolomeo Cavarozzi and Mattia Preti, Flemish and Italian 17th century painters, and landscape painters of the 17th-17th century.
The next room marks a sort of hinge between the Mossi di Morano collection and the rooms dedicated to the history of the Academy: it houses copies of famous paintings - by Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Rubens - that form a sort of Olympus of the Masters considered outstanding by classicist and academic culture.

The second part of the exhibition is dedicated to the works of masters and pupils of the Academy from the 18th, 19th and early 20th century, including a nucleus of paintings by Giacomo Grosso.
This is followed by the Cartoni Gaudenziani, one of the most important collections of 16th century drawings in the world. The dim light that illuminates the room, necessary for the proper preservation of the works on paper, offers visitors the opportunity to observe the individual pieces in an evocative and enveloping atmosphere.