This guided tour takes you on a journey to discover the most fascinating portraits in the Pinacoteca, illustrating the way this genre developed from the Renaissance to the 19th century. On show are works by the greatest Italian portraitists of all time, from Leonardo to Titian, Moroni, Fede Galizia, Appiani and Hayez, in a succession of well- and lesser-known figures, who documented the evolution of Italian society through the centuries.
At left, Portrait of a Man, Hans Muelich (1516-1573), 1548, oil on panel, 71 × 51 cm; at right, Portrait of Alessandro Negroni Prati, Francesco Hayez (1791-1882), 1853, oil on canvas, 120 × 94 cm
A significant part of the collection donated by Federico Borromeo to the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana consisted of portraits, together with religious subjects, landscapes and still lifes. Apart from those in the picture gallery, visitors should also remember the various portraits of illustrious individuals exhibited in the Library as the ideal complement to the collection of books and manuscripts, in a sort of map of the conquests of Western culture in the spiritual, intellectual, moral and artistic fields.
Today the portraits are an important part of the collection both by the number of works exhibited and the fame and quality of the paintings themselves. Outstanding among them is the Portrait of a Musician, the only one of Leonardo’s portraits painted in Milan still in the city.
The visit is completed with an overview of sculpted portraits through a viewing of the 19th-century busts and the sculptures in the Cortile degli Spiriti Magni.
Every Sunday, from May 23, 2021
On the occasion of the celebrations for the seventh centenary of Dante Alighieri's death, the exhibition presents a precious selection of Divine Comedies from the Ambrosiana Library.
Opening hours, booking and access procedures from April 29
