Description
The Galleria Sabauda is Turin's great picture gallery: more than 700 paintings, from the 13th to the 20th century, in the Manica Nuova of the Royal Palace, inside the Royal Museums complex next to the Cathedral. It's the right place if you want to see Flanders, Italy and Piedmont in a single museum.
The route follows time, from the Middle Ages onward. Jan van Eyck's Stigmata of St. Francis, from 1428-1429, and Hans Memling's Passion of Christ are part of one of the most important groups of Flemish painting in Italy, along with Rubens, Rembrandt and the Bruegels.
The Italians hold their own: Fra Angelico's Madonna and Child, Duccio's Madonna Enthroned, a Mantegna, Bronzino, Veronese with the Feast in the House of Simon, Orazio Gentileschi, Guido Reni and Guercino.
Piedmontese painters get plenty of room, from Defendente Ferrari to Macrino d'Alba and Gaudenzio Ferrari, hard to find anywhere else. Then come Van Dyck's portraits and Bernardo Bellotto's View of Turin, the city in the mid-18th century seen from the Royal Gardens.
The collection grew out of the Savoy family's passion for paintings, which a Lombard painter, Lomazzo, was already praising in 1590. On October 2, 1832, his birthday, King Charles Albert opened the picture gallery to the public, in the rooms of Palazzo Madama.
That was when the moves began. In 1865 the paintings went to the Palace of the Academy of Sciences, and that same year, a twist of fate, the Senate left for Florence and freed up Palazzo Madama.
The current home is the third in its history: the Manica Nuova, built between the 19th and 20th centuries by Emilio Stramucci and inaugurated as the permanent home on December 4, 2014. The old rooms went to the Egyptian Museum, its longtime housemate.
Among the most important contributions is the collection of Riccardo Gualino, an industrialist from Biella, which arrived in 1930. Another historic collection is that of Prince Eugene of Savoy, which came to Piedmont in the 18th century after a stay in Vienna.
The route follows time, from the Middle Ages onward. Jan van Eyck's Stigmata of St. Francis, from 1428-1429, and Hans Memling's Passion of Christ are part of one of the most important groups of Flemish painting in Italy, along with Rubens, Rembrandt and the Bruegels.
The Italians hold their own: Fra Angelico's Madonna and Child, Duccio's Madonna Enthroned, a Mantegna, Bronzino, Veronese with the Feast in the House of Simon, Orazio Gentileschi, Guido Reni and Guercino.
Piedmontese painters get plenty of room, from Defendente Ferrari to Macrino d'Alba and Gaudenzio Ferrari, hard to find anywhere else. Then come Van Dyck's portraits and Bernardo Bellotto's View of Turin, the city in the mid-18th century seen from the Royal Gardens.
The collection grew out of the Savoy family's passion for paintings, which a Lombard painter, Lomazzo, was already praising in 1590. On October 2, 1832, his birthday, King Charles Albert opened the picture gallery to the public, in the rooms of Palazzo Madama.
That was when the moves began. In 1865 the paintings went to the Palace of the Academy of Sciences, and that same year, a twist of fate, the Senate left for Florence and freed up Palazzo Madama.
The current home is the third in its history: the Manica Nuova, built between the 19th and 20th centuries by Emilio Stramucci and inaugurated as the permanent home on December 4, 2014. The old rooms went to the Egyptian Museum, its longtime housemate.
Among the most important contributions is the collection of Riccardo Gualino, an industrialist from Biella, which arrived in 1930. Another historic collection is that of Prince Eugene of Savoy, which came to Piedmont in the 18th century after a stay in Vienna.