Corpo Pagina
The exhibition itinerary of the Pinacoteca is divided into three floors, from the top to the bottom. Access is from the third floor of the Archaeological Museum.
The layout respects and follows the course of the ancient Spanish walls, set inside the museum. The presence of an empty space in the center, today enhanced by the presence of a large, painted altarpiece, allows a broad view of almost the entire collection, which ranges from the beginning of the 15th century to the Contemporary.
The presence of the elevator makes the whole structure accessible and usable.
First floor
The heart of the exhibition is the retables, large altarpieces divided into painted compartments, which adorned the churches of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Cagliari and southern Sardinia. The exceptional nature of the collection, a true unicum in the Italian national panorama, allows us to admire works by Catalan artists – such as Joan Mates, Rafael Thomas and Joan Figuera – and Sardinian artists – such as Cavaro, Antioco Mainas, Francesco Pinna – who played an important role in the history of art in Sardinia.
Other works ranging from the sixteenth century, through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of the Flemish, Neapolitan, Genoese, Roman, Emilian, Venetian and Spanish schools are exhibited on the walls of the museum, underlining the close dialogue that the Island has always maintained with other centers on the shores of the Mediterranean and throughout Europe.
The exhibition is enriched by a precious Reliquary of the SS. Martyrs of Sardinia in mahogany with ebony, ivory, tortoiseshell and brass inserts, dated around 1615-1620, a selection of precious Sardinian jewels and votive wooden statuettes.
Second floor
The second floor houses works from Sardinian-Piedmontese period of the 19th century, with an interesting collection of portraits, among which stands out that of Canon Spano, an enlightened figure of Sardinia in 19th-century positivism, fundamental to the history of the island and the National Museums of Cagliari.
Twentieth-century painting on the island is witnessed by painters such as Stanis Dessy, Pietro Antonio Manca, Cesare Cabras, Mario Delitala, Giovanni Ciusa Romagna and ranges among topics such as rural life, traditional clothing, landscapes, portraits and still lifes.
Other contemporary artists, some still alive, also find a prominent exhibition space in this area: the museum’s goal is to increase its collections with a keen interest in contemporary art.
The floor also houses restrooms.
Lower floor
The lower floor is a space dedicated to the temporary exhibitions. The important donation made in 2021 by the artist and master goldsmith Italo Antico is currently on display.
