The Holy Family with John the Baptist Michele di Ridolfodel Ghirlandaio (Michele Tosini) Full size image
		Rest on the Flight into Egypt Pierre Francesco Mola Full size image

previous room

next room

Assembled in this cabinet are paintings by 16th- and 17th-century artists belonging to various schools. The visitor's eye is caught by Andrea Sacchi's composition The Triumph of Wisdom - a sketch for a ceiling painting executed in 1633 for the Barberini Palace in Rome. Sacchi became the head of an entire school in the Rome of the 1630s when the Eternal City was the arena for artistic experiments and discoveries. Many of the artists whose paintings are now in the cabinet worked in Rome. Among them was Pierre Francesco Mola, who, while not a leading painter, nevertheless reflected in his work the searchings of his contemporaries. In Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio's Holy Family with John the Baptist (first half of the 16th century) one can sense echoes of Michelangelo's famous Doni Tondo that became a source of inspiration for many Florentine artists. The Male Portrait that at the time of purchase in 1846 was considered to be by Leonardo da Vinci is now attributed to Parmigianino.

Luigi Premazzi

The Cabinet of the Italian Schools.1860

Watercolour