Malaspina Picture Gallery, Art museum in Castello Visconteo, Pavia, Italy.
The Malaspina Picture Gallery is the civic art gallery of Pavia, housed since 1951 in the Castello Visconteo. Its collection spans paintings from the 13th to the 19th century, including works by Antonello da Messina, Gentile da Fabriano, Giovanni Bellini, Correggio and Paolo Veronese, plus fresco fragments from demolished monuments in the Pavia area.
The museum grew from the art collection of Marquis Luigi Malaspina di Sannazzaro, who left his works to the city upon his death in 1835. This donation established the core of what the museum displays today.
The gallery's name honours Marquis Luigi Malaspina di Sannazzaro, the Enlightenment collector whose bequest founded it. Its 19th-century holdings come largely from Pavia's Civic School of Painting, closed in 1934, and later gifts from patrons such as the Cairoli family.
The museum sits within the Civic Museums complex at Viale XI Febbraio 35 with standard opening hours. Guided tours are available in multiple languages to help visitors understand the collections.
The collection's oldest paintings are on panel: a Madonna and Child by Giovanni Bellini and a Madonna in glory with Saints Francis and Clare by Gentile da Fabriano, both counted among those artists' earliest works. Frescoes detached from demolished buildings in the Pavia area are also displayed.
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