- Raphael — Saint Cecilia
- Giotto — the polyptych
- the Carracci
- Guido Reni
- Guercino
01What it is
The Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna is on via delle Belle Arti, in the university quarter. Much of its collection came from the city's churches and convents when they were suppressed in the Napoleonic era, so the paintings are mostly what Bologna itself commissioned over six centuries.
02What to see
Raphael's Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia, painted for a Bologna church, is the most famous single picture here.
Early rooms hold a polyptych by Giotto and work by Vitale da Bologna. Later ones belong to the painters who made Bologna a capital of art around 1600: the Carracci family, who founded a painting academy in the city, Guido Reni — whose Massacre of the Innocents is here — and Guercino. Parmigianino is represented too.
03How to use it
It is rarely crowded, which is the great luxury of this gallery compared with Florence's. An hour and a half covers the highlights without hurrying.
Note Italian state museums close one day a week and sometimes rearrange rooms. Check the gallery's own page before you go.