Pinacoteca Nazionale

Bologna’s most important art is stored among the university buildings in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, a collection begun by Cardinal Lambertini and expanded after he became Pope Benedict XIV.

Most of the works came from demolished city churches, especially after Napoleon suppressed so many of the city’s monasteries. Napoleon, as was his wont, also took the best paintings to Paris, but unlike many places after 1815 Bologna was fortunate enough to get them back and moved the lot into this old Jesuit monastery in 1816.

Pre-Renaissance

The itinerary begins with the 14th-century Bolognese artists, of which that singular painter Vitale da Bologna emerges as the star with his intense St George and the Dragon and Life of St Anthony Abbot (unlike most of his contemporaries, including Giotto, Vitale knew what a camel looked like). Brilliant colours, a hint of depth, and delight in nature are the rule with Vitale, excepting the grey and sombre Cristo in Pietà made in the plague year of 1348.