Tosio Martinengo Art Gallery

THE ART GALLERY

Completely renovated in 2018, the Pinacoteca houses and showcases masterpieces by world-famous masters such as Raphael, Lotto, and Hayez, but also offers valuable forays into Renaissance Brescian painting with artists such as Savoldo, Romanino, and Moretto.

The collection, in fact, originated from the bequest of Count Paolo Tosio, a refined patron who in 1832 donated his works and his library to the Municipality of Brescia to be made accessible to the public. Over time, it has been significantly expanded thanks to donations and targeted acquisitions, which today allow us to present, in addition to paintings, numerous examples of decorative arts that further enrich the visitor experience.

In 1884, the Pinacoteca found its current home inside Palazzo Martinengo da Barco, also the result of a generous bequest from a private Brescian to the city, and today it represents an essential destination for those who wish to admire the dialogue between great Italian and European masters in a fascinating architectural context.

THE WORKS

A new masterpiece enriches the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, opening an unprecedented view of Romanino's painting and the history of Brescia in the sixteenth century.

It is not just a painting. It is a story of art, solidarity, and participation, that spans the centuries to become a heritage of the entire city once again.

Starting today, in Room VII dedicated to private devotion, The Good Samaritan by Girolamo Romanino enters the permanent exhibition of the Pinacoteca. Acquired by the Tassara Foundation and loaned to the Brescia Museums Foundation, the work reveals the expressive power of one of the protagonists of Brescian Renaissance. Alongside St. Jerome and the Christ Carrying the Cross by the same artist, the painting offers a new key to understanding his painting, intense, non-canonical, and deeply connected to everyday reality.

At the center, the value of charitas: the act of caring for the fragile becomes an image of a sixteenth-century Brescia attentive to the assistance of the sick and the needy, animated by brotherhoods, hospitals, and charitable institutions. A rare subject in Italian Renaissance painting, it brings the visitor closer to the human and spiritual dimension of the work.

Thanks to the initiative of the Tassara Foundation, this masterpiece is not only returned to the public's gaze but also becomes part of a collective story. An act of patronage that renews, almost five hundred years after its creation, the deepest meaning of the painting: to care for others and to build, together, the cultural heritage of the community.

A rediscovered work for the city, a new chapter in the story of the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo.