Paintings Collection

Few exceptions aside, the Bagatti Valsecchi painting collection consists of 15th-16th-century panels mainly from Tuscany, Lombardy and, to a lesser extent, the venetian area. The sumptuous domestic set-up places side by side works of great artists – such as the masterpiece of Giovanni Bellini, St. Justine – and pieces by minor masters concerning the areas around Como Lake or the valleys around Bergamo. The Neo-Renaissance frames succeed in balancing the artworks set up in the room and in transforming panels from dismembered polyptychs – a frequent object category in the collection – into enjoyable paintings themselves, managing to lessen their identity as panels once part of a larger articulated piece.