Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria
Encyclopedia
Umbria
Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...
, housed in the Palazzo dei Priori
Palazzo dei Priori
The Palazzo dei Priori is a historical building in Perugia, Umbria, central Italy.As in other Italian medieval communes, it was the seat of the priori . This magistrature was established in Perugia in 1303: the palazzo had been called the Palazzo Nuovo del Popolo to that point...
, Perugia
Perugia
Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the River Tiber, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area....
, in central Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Its collection comprises the greatest representation of the Umbrian School of painting, ranging from the 13th to the 19th century, strongest in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. The collection is presented in twenty-three galleries in the Palazzo.
The origins of the collection lie in the founding of the Perugian Accademia del Disegno in the mid-16th century. The Academy had its original seat in the Convento degli Olivetani at Montemorcino, where a collection of paintings and drawings began to be assembled. With the suppression of religious houses imposed by the Napoleonic administration, and imposed once again by the united Kingdom of Italy, much of the heritage of Italian art that had come to be the property of the Church became the property of the State.
In 1863, the civic paintings collection was formally named to commemorate Pietro Vannucci, but the problem of establishing an appropriate site to house the collection was not solved until 1873, when it came to be housed on the third floor of the Palazzo dei Priori, in the center of Perugia. With the addition of acquisitions, donations and bequests, the pinacoteca became the Regia Galleria Vannucci in 1918, under the patronage of the king.