Outside Brera

The project Outside Brera: Paintings on Long-Term Loan aims to enhance and promote the pictorial heritage of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, consisting of 223 paintings currently on loan to external institutions, through an extensive programme of digitisation and documentation. The objective is to create virtual thematic paths, accessible internationally via web-based platforms, that allow the public and scholars to explore this significant collection.

This work provides an opportunity to re-examine and update this important corpus of mostly nineteenth-century paintings by revising and integrating the official ministerial catalogue records, assessing the conservation status of each work through the preparation of condition reports, acquiring high-resolution digital images, and promoting a targeted campaign of multispectral diagnostics.

The diagnostic and cataloguing activities will focus primarily on the works located off-site, the core of the project’s study and dissemination effort, but will also include paintings preserved at the central headquarters of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, whose SIGeCWeb catalogue records will likewise be revised and updated.

Parallel to this effort, the project will include a survey of comparable pictorial heritage held in other educational institutions, both in Italy and abroad, as well as the organization of training activities aimed at fostering expertise in the knowledge and management of academic art collections.

The information and materials collected – previously scarce and difficult to access – will be made available for research and public consultation on the digital platform. This resource will foster transdisciplinary and cross-sector dialogue based on artistic movements, painting genres, historical context, technical and conservation data, and provenance information.

Ultimately, the platform will serve as a vital tool for both the preservation and the digital communication of a heritage that is usually inaccessible to the general public, enabling users to explore, study, and share the paintings of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera currently on long-term loan to other institutions.