The Carrara Academy is a picture gallery located in Bergamo. The exhibition, organized on two floors and developed in 28 rooms, consists of over six hundred works on display covering a chronological span of five centuries, from the beginning of the fifteenth century until the end of the nineteenth century, touching the main Italian schools of painting and the painting beyond the Alps of Flanders and Holland.The enlightened spirit of Count Giacomo Carrara, patron, collector and connoisseur of the world of literature and the arts, is the origin of the Pinacoteca, a repertoire of forms and models already collected in his private collection which he wanted to add to the School of Painting on the occasion of his generous bequest to the city of Bergamo at the end of the eighteenth century.
On the death of the Count in 1796, he bound all his assets to the newly-established Accademia, entrusting the management of them to a Commissioner who exercised her mandate until 1958, when the Municipality of Bergamo took over the ownership and management through a Board of Directors that collected and amplified the legacy of the previous body.
The Museum, which, in confirmation of the validity of the founder’s intentions, has continued to increase its holdings thanks to acquisitions and munificent donations from qualified private collectors linked to the city, currently possesses one thousand eight hundred paintings, evidence of the centuries between the 15th and 19th centuries by artists such as Pisanello, Botticelli, Giovanni Bellini, Mantegna, Raffaello, Moroni, Baschenis, Fra Galgario, Tiepolo, Canaletto and Piccio.
This main collection is flanked by a significant collection of drawings and prints, selected nuclei of bronzes, sculptures and porcelain as well as furniture and furnishings and a selection of medals.
