Biblioteca and Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.
Although it was still early in the morning, quite a few people had already assembled in the Piazza Pio XI. This was not entirely surprising, as the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, which would open its doors at ten o’clock, is among the most popular art museums in Milan. As it turned out, none of those waiting had made use of the option to buy electronic tickets in advance. I myself, on the other hand, had done just that, so I happily skipped the line that was forming at the ticket office. The staff had some trouble kickstarting the computer system, and as a consequence, I had the entire museum for myself for about five minutes. An extraordinary experience I must say.
History
The driving force behind establishing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana was Federico Borromeo, archbishop of Milan from 1595 until his death in 1631. Borromeo, cousin of Saint Carlo Borromeo, was an important figure in the counter-Reformation movement. In 1609 he founded the Bibliotheca Ambrosiana, one of the first public libraries in Europe. It was intended for Catholic scholars who could come here to gather knowledge to stem the tide of Protestantism, which was sweeping through Europe. In 1618, an art gallery was added to the library. Borromeo donated his personal collection of paintings and drawings to the museum, and later more works were acquired by or gifted to the museum and put on display. Finally, in 1620, the Accademia del Disegno was founded, aimed at training young artists in the artistic traditions of the counter-Reformation.
Biblioteca Ambrosiana and church of San Sepolcro.
The Ambrosiana – as I will call it from now on – was expanded in the nineteenth century and again in 1932, when the former church of San Sepolcro was incorporated into the library and museum. The building suffered damage during World War II and had to be restored. The doors were closed in 1990 for extensive renovations and the Ambrosiana did not reopen until 1997. Among its top pieces is the Codex Atlanticus, a collection of drawings and writings by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) comprising more than 1,100 pages. It also houses some rather strange items, such as a lock of Lucrezia Borgia’s hair and the gloves worn by Napoleon during the Battle of Waterloo. The Pinacoteca consists of some 24 rooms and my travel guide calls it “one of the most beautiful museums of Milan”.
Collection
The art collection of the Ambrosiana is certainly impressive, but regretfully I was not able to take many photos during my first visit to the museum in 2016. At the time the Ambrosiana had a strict “no photo” policy in the galleries. Even back then, this policy felt outdated, as taking pictures – without flash of course – had stopped being a problem in Italian museums way before 2016. I had already taken pictures at the Uffizi in Florence and it was allowed in other Milanese museums as well (the Brera for instance, and the Museo Poldi Pezzoli). But when I had taken a few photos in the Ambrosiana, I was kindly asked not to do that anymore. Other visitors were admonished too. The incident somewhat spoiled my museum experience and certainly did not make the first version of this post a must-read. After all, my website is all about the history that I can actually show to my readers. Without photos, this is rather difficult.
Nine years later, the situation turned out to have improved drastically, although I still find the photo policy vague and confusing. According to the official house rules, visitors are now allowed to take photos with mobile phones and tablets. Apparently the thought is that these devices are only capable of producing low-quality pictures, and certainly not the kind of pictures that are suitable for commercial use. In practice, however, taking pictures with a camera was completely unproblematic. I asked a guard, who said it was fine as long as I did not use flash. Some rooms in the museum are very dark, and you may expect a guard to confuse the red light of your camera’s autofocus (AF) for a flash. This is, in any case, what happened to me in 2025. I was again admonished (“only foto normale”), but decided not to engage in a discussion with the guard. Using my smartphone instead worked fine too.
To my delight, the lifting of the ban on photography meant that this time I did get a chance to photograph some of the Ambrosiana’s top pieces. Among these we can count Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit (an early work, painted before 1600), Leonardo da Vinci’s Portrait of a Musician, an Adoration of the Magi by Titian and Raphael’s sketch for the School of Athens, which he later painted in the Vatican. An entire room is dedicated to the latter work.
Raphael’s sketch for the School of Athens.
My personal favourite in the collection is a Madonna and Child by the Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli (ca. 1445-1510). It is known as the Madonna del Padiglione, the Madonna of the Pavilion. The painting has its own page on Wikipedia and it is truly magnificent. We see one angel supporting the Child, while the Virgin is baring one of her breasts to feed it. The two other angels in the scene seem to be opening the tent flaps so that the viewer can see what is going on inside the pavilion. The painting can be dated to about 1493 and was executed when Botticelli had already come under the influence of the firebrand preacher Girolamo Savonarola from Ferrara. In this late period in his work, Botticelli almost exclusively painted religious scenes and did not pay much attention to correct perspective anymore. The angels, for instance, are much smaller than the Virgin, whose head looks a bit oversized. Botticelli returned to the earlier Gothic style here, where size was an indication of importance.
In the same room we find an Adoration of the Child by the workshop (bottega) of the prolific Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494). My travel guide calls this work an “absolute masterpiece”. I do not agree. While the painting is certainly interesting and the colours are pretty, I much prefer Ghirlandaio’s frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel in Florence. The Adoration of the Child may have been inspired by the altarpiece of that chapel, an Adoration of the Shepherds. Both the ox and the donkey look quite similar, as does the manger with the garland. The composition of the work is much simpler though, and much less detailed. An interesting detail is a praying man in the background on the right. On the left, we can see horsemen approaching, presumably the Magi. The pink spot in the sky is the angel of the Annunciation.
We move on to a Madonna and Child by Pinturicchio (ca. 1452-1513). “Pinturicchio” – which means “little painter” – was of course not his real name: he was born in Perugia and named Bernardino di Betto by his parents. I could not find much information about the painting, but it has a few interesting details. The man in the foreground with the red cap in his hand is presumably the man who commissioned the painting. Above the Virgin, we see clouds with the faces and wings of angels. On the left, Pinturicchio painted a city in the background with a road leading to it. On the road, a man on horseback seems to be fighting two men on foot. The painting may have been commissioned for private devotion.
Updated 13 August 2025.
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