In this room are showed artwork by painters of the second half of the XIVth century, when the gothic expressiveness becomes less extreme.

Besides some works of Simone de’ Crocefissi and Jacopo di Paolo, author of the monumental wooden altar in the Bolognini chapel in St. Petronius church, we find the Crucifix by Giovanni da Modena, author, in the same chapel, of the large fresco cycle with the Stories of the three Kings and the Last Judgement (both still visible on the spot).

To this last scene is connected the wooden table here exposed with the Paradise and Hell, maybe made by a miniaturist close to Giovanni himself.

In this room are exposed some important painting of schools outside Bologna.

The most important work is the polyptich made by Giotto for the Santa Maria degli Angeli church: the only signed by the Florentine master in Bologna, unica opera firmata del maestro fiorentino a Bologna, usually dated to 1330 circa.

Beside this artwork, it can be found others Umbrian and Tuscan works, like the Crucifix of Rinaldo di Ranuccio, signed and dated 1265, the Last Supper of the senese Andrea di Bartolo, an interesting small wood table of an anonymous florentine called Maestro della Misericordia which in the second half of the XIVth century seems to be aware of the new Giotto style, and a Madonna with Child by the late gothic Florentine painter Lorenzo Monaco.

The Renaissance section begins with this room, starting from the large Polyptich signed in 1450 by the Murano painters Antonio and Bartolomeo Vivarini, representative maters of the Venetian school.

Antonio Vivarini is also the author of the Jesus Christ emerging from the tomb, one of the most important proof of the Vivarini presence in Emilia.

On the same wall, in the left of the entrance, you can see the Madonna with Child by Cima da Conegliano, and the processional banner by Niccolò Alunno, depicting on one side the Madonna with Child ans Saints and on the other one the Announciation dated to 1482.

In this room we see the artistic production of the early Bolognese Renaissance, with the Madonna enthroned with Child with St. Petronius and John Evangelist adored by the donor Alberto Cattani aka Merchants Altarpiece, (1474) by Francesco del Cossa, which occupy the entire right wall.

On the opposite wall are displayed a small wood table with Saint Michael Archangel, by Ercole de’ Roberti and, of the same artist, the preciuos fragment with Mary of Magdalen crying, the only surviving pating of the famous decoration of the della Garganelli Chapel in the St. Peter Church, begun by del Cossa and finished by Ercole (1479-1483), then destroyed at the end of the XVIth century.

In this large room are on displey some of the most important artworks of the ferrarese painter Lorenzo Costa, coming from Bolognese churches: the Madonna enthroned with Child and Saints Petronius and Tecla, aka Saint Tecla Altarpiece, in the namesake church, one of his first experience with classicism, and the St. Petronius with the saints Francis and Dominic, from the Annunziata church.

Even the Assumpted Madonna from Monteveglio Abbey, a temper on canvas from the 1590's.

In this room can be found even a painting of the Ferrarese Sebastiano Manieri depicting Saint Sebastian, the Baruffino Portrait by Giovan Francesco Maineri and a painting by some member of the Lendinara entourage.

In this room, together with the previous one, are displayed the artworks of Francesco Francia, the most important painting at the Bentivoglio court the Bentivoglio Altarpiece and the Manzuoli Altarpiece.

This room displays two large altarpieces, both made for the San Giovanni in Monte church in Bologna, one of the favorite place of the new Patronage of the early '500, and that cause a long echo on the following years: the Madonna with Child in Glory with saints John the Evangelist, Pollonia, Catherin of Alexandria amd Michale Archangel by Perugino and the Extasis of St. Cecilia by Raphael.

Together with this masterpieces of the central Italy Classicism, we find other paintings, bounded to the Tuscan Classic culture of the early XVIth century, with which the artist of the new Bolognese school will interact more or less strictly.

This room is dedicated mainly to the Madonna with Child and Saints Margaret, Hyeronymus and Petronius (1529) by the Parmigianino, an artworks where the formal elegance and the ambivalent expression of mannerism are wonderfully combined.

Girolamo da Cotignola, remembered with his Bolognese fellows in the church of San Michele in Bosco and in several locations open in Bologna at the begnning of the XVIth century, is here represented with his Madonna with Child, St. John the Baptist and Bermard, where it can be found elements by Raphael, and of Venice and Bologna school, and the large altarpiece with the Marriage of the Virgin, with its altar-step with the St. Joseph's Dream, Jesus' Birth and Flee into Egypt, Sogno di San Giuseppe. Natività di Cristo. Fuga in Egitto, in which raphael style, central-Italy memories and Bolognese culture are united in one of the most complex results of his art.

This room, that ends the Renaissance area, hosts interesting works of Venetian school, as the Mourning on Christ Body by the Paduan painter Domenico Campagnola, the Visitation by Tintoretto, important artwork for the formation of the young Carraccis and the Crucified Jesus with the Good Thief, by the late Titian.

The Adoration of the Shepherds, painted for Bologna by the Genuan painter Luca Cambiaso, is the sign of the several exchanges and confrontation of that time, wich formed the basis for the further development of the new Bolognese experience of the following years.

In this room are exposed works realised in the second half of the XVIth century, that are therefore prior or contemporary to the naturalist Carraccis revolution, maintening in their compositiion a strict adherence to the Mannerist style.

Artworks by artist such as Giorgio Vasari, Camillo Procaccini, Prospero Fontana and Bartolomeo Passerotti, an important protagonist of the late Bolognese Mannerism, in which a penchant for naturalism is a divresion from the intellectual schemes of that period.

The severe composition and the devotional faith of Bartolomeo Cesi's painting are the introdoction to the following room, dedicated to the Carracci family.

In this large room are on display some of the most important artworks by Ludovico (1555-1619), Annibale (1560-1609) and Agostino Carracci (1557-1602), Founders in the 1580's of the Incamminati Academy.

This was a school / workshop in which the new art ideas of the three cousins, matured by the union of the "true" lessons with the study of the great "Cinquecento" masters (mostly Correggio, Titian and Veronese), could be practise and teached to the youngster pupils.

The intention was that of reforming the painting of their age, with a return to a more Nature inspired art.

By Ludovico, great interpreter of both the high spirituality of the Counter-Reform as of the simplicity of everyday life, there are some paintings marking some of the highest achievements of his career, like the Announciation and the Preaching of St John the Baptist.

Few are the artworks by Annibale who left Bologna in 1595, summoned to Tome by the Cardinal Odoardo Farnese in order to wotk at the fresco decoration in the Camerino and in the Gallery of Palazzo Farnese.

At the end there are the only two paintings by Agostino, cultivated theorist of the Academy and well known as an engraver: the Assumption of the Virgin and the Last Communion service of St. Jerome.

This large room hosts the marvellous Guido Reni (1575-1642), best expression of the Classical ideal of the XVIIth century.

When Reni was still a child, he entered in the workshop of the flamish painter Denys Calvaert, of which he was pupil for ten years, reaching an high level of importance in that workshop.

In 1594 Guido left Calvaert to enter in the Incamminati Academy, where his talents were appreciated by Ludovico Carracci of which he became pupil and then rival.

The execution of the fresco for the entering in Bologna of the Pope Clemens Clemente VIII Aldobrandini (1598), was the beginning of a brilliant career that lead him in Rome in 1601, where he lived albeit with several interruptions, until 1614.

In the circle of the Papal court, he received important contracts.

The suggiostions from the ancient roman scupture, with Raphael and the classical language used in Rome by Annibale Carracci, lead Guido into an ever more profound "ideal" representation of reality. This continuous impulse towards the "ideal beauty" was the constant note in all the developmente of his career, which ended with artworks almost misterious, where the quality of the bodies loses weight and acquires a supernatural lightness.

In this room are displayed the most improtant paintings realised in Bologna, in a succession that retrace all the stages of his artistic life.

In the first room of this corridor there are on display artworks of the artists of the Carracci's workshop of the Incamminati Academy.

Among those, there is the Mourning on the dead Christ's body (1617), one of the most convincing achievements of Alessandro Tiarini, the Prodigal Son by Lucio Massari, and, again by Tiarini the Mystic marriage of St. Catherine and the altarpiece by (Madonna with Child in Glry woth the saints Eligius and Petronius)

Before leaving the room, it can be admired the beautiful Announciation by Pietro Faccini, colourful and elegant artwork.

Questa sala presenta una panoramica sull’arte di Giovan Francesco Barbieri detto il Guercino, universalmente riconosciuto e apprezzato come uno dei massimi esponenti del seicento bolognese.

Sono qui esposti alcuni importanti dipinti tra i quali riveste un ruolo preminente il San Guglielmo d'Aquitania che riceve l'abito religioso da San Felice Vescovo (Vestizione di San Guglielmo), capolavoro giovanile realizzato nel 1620 per la chiesa di San Gregorio.

La sua ricca scuola, attiva per diverse generazioni, viene illustrata in modo significativo da un Ritratto attribuito a Benedetto Gennari, parente stretto e seguace del maestro.

Da segnalare è la presenza della Madonna col Bambino e San Giovannino e di Sant’Antonio da Padova in adorazione del Bambino di Elisabetta Sirani conosciuta interprete femminile del classicismo reniano.

Compaiono inoltre opere di Simone Cantarini, Giovanni Lanfranco e il Martirio di San Pietro da Verona (1619-1621) del Domenichino, derivata dal celebre dipinto di Tiziano andato distrutto nel 1867.

This room hosts an overview of the art of Giovan Francesco Barbieri called the Guercino, one of the most important painter of the Bolognese school of the XVIIIth century.

Here are exposed some important paintings, among which the St. Wilhelm of Aquitaine receiving the religiuos vest from St. Felix (Drerssing of St. Wilhelm), masterpiece of the earlier years, realised in 1620 for the St. Gregory church.

His workshop, active for many generations, is here represented by a Portrait attributed to Benedetto Gennari, relative of Guercino and his follower.

It is interesting even the Madonna with Child, and Saints John the Baptist and Anthony of Padua in adoration by Elisabetta Sirani, well known female interpreter of the Reni classicism.

On display we find works by Simone Cantarini, Giovanni Lanfranco and the Martirdom of St. Peter of Verona(1619-1621) by Domenichino, derived from the famous painting by Titian, destroyed in 1867.

This large octagonal room, dedicated to the memory of the Great art historian Cesare Gnudi (1910-1981), for many years Director of the Pinacoteca, hosts usually the learning activities of the museum (concerts, lectures, speeches).

On the walls are displayed some large altarpieces of the most important era of the Bolognese school.

We find Ludovico Carracci with his “Birth of the Baptist”; Domenichino with a “Prayer-beads Madonna” and an altarpiece depicting the “Martyrdom of St. Agnes”; Francesco Albani, author of a “Baptism of Christ” and of the “Madonna with Child and Saints John the Baptist, Francis and Matthew”.

Furthermore, two artworks by painters not already represented in the museum: the large canvas with “Abraham and Melchisedech” by Lionello Spada, already pupil of the Incamminaty Academy since its foundation and then at works with Ludovico and the “Madonna with Child and Saints Theresa, John and Charles Borromeo” by Carlo Cignani, member of a generation that, in the middle of 1600's has acquired the innovation of the Carraccis.