In Milan there is a district called Brera. The word "brera" comes from a Medieval Italian term for an expanse of land devoid of trees. This was once an accurate description of the area, as it was just outside the city wall and was deliberately kept treeless for military reasons. But now it's a densely-built district of the city which is home to the Palazzo Brera, a monumental palace which houses several cultural institutions, including the subject of this page, the Brera Gallery (or Pinacoteca di Brera).

The Brera Gallery is now the principal public gallery for paintings in Milan, but the palazzo started out as the main building of a Jesuit college in the 17th Century. In 1773, the Jesuit order was suppressed by Pope Clement XIV, and the palazzo passed to the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, which ruled northern Italy at the time. In 1776, Empress Maria Theresa directed that an academy of fine arts be founded at the site, and the Academy went into business the same year, with Giuseppe Parini as its first dean.

At first the academy didn't have much in the way of actual art to be studied, starting out with casts of some antiquities that had been provided. But Parini's successors began to acquire some actual works of art, a process that was greatly accelerated during Napoleon's occupation of Italy. As the French troops proceeded through the peninsula, they shut down many monasteries, convents and churches, and sent their works of art to Milan. Though later years brought the acquisition of other genres of art, the core of the gallery's collection remains religious in nature. In 1809 the gallery was formally split off from the academy as a separate institution, though they both remained in the palazzo.

On entering the gallery, we weren't really aware of its history, but nor were we particularly surprised at seeing a lot of religious art – pretty much all European art of a certain era was religious, with an emphasis on Christian themes. But in walking from room to room, we began to notice something of a lack of subject variety.

But even though the subjects were well-known and somewhat predictable, it was interesting to see the different ways in which they were treated by different artists. Here are some paintings that depict events related to the birth of Jesus and his early childhood:




And here are some events from the adulthood of Jesus, leading up to his crucifixion and beyond:





Also commonly depicted in the paintings of the time were the experiences of the followers of Christ, especially those who later became saints (martyrdoms were especially popular):


A common practice of the time was for a wealthy donor to sponsor the creation of a painting, under the condition that he (and often his family members) would also be depicted in the painting, usually kneeling and praying. So often there are paintings with readily identifiable characters, along with some praying hangers-on whose identities remain a mystery to this day. In this particular painting, however, the donors were arguably the most well-known people in Milan at the time – the city's Duke, Ludovico Sforza (alias il Moro) and his wife, Beatrice d'Este, along with their children:

There is also a certain amount of art preservation going on at the Brera Gallery. Here are some frescoes that were rescued from Milan's Santa Maria della Pace church:

While most of the religious art was from the New Testament and later, there were some paintings of events from the Old Testament. Here are a couple:

Eventually, the subjects permitted in paintings were loosened up some, and artists started painting events from Greek and Roman mythology:

This eventually opened things up for paintings of subjects that were entirely secular, either historical or contemporary (now, of course, all would be considered historical):


After the gallery was opened, acquisition of new paintings went on. Here are a couple from the 19th Century:

Our visit to the Brera Gallery was the last major tourist attraction we visited in Milan. But throughout our stay in the city, we'd been visiting less prestigious points of interest. Continue on to the next page for a look at some of them.