Discover Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

La Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea is Italy's national gallery of modern and contemporary art, founded in 1883 on the initiative of the then minister Guido Baccelli. It stands on viale delle Belle Arti, in the Villa Borghese park near the Villa Giulia.

It displays about 1,100 paintings and sculptures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries — the largest such collection in Italy. The Italian holdings run from Canova through Balla, Boccioni, Modigliani, de Chirico, Morandi, Manzù, Burri and Fontana; the foreign ones include Braque, Calder, Cézanne, Degas, Duchamp, Giacometti, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Monet, Pollock, Rodin and Van Gogh.

The building is part of the story. Cesare Bazzani designed it and it was built between 1911 and 1915, with friezes on the façade by Ermenegildo Luppi, Adolfo Laurenti and Giovanni Prini and four figures of Fame holding bronze wreaths by Adolfo Pantaresi and Albino Candoni. Bazzani then doubled it in size in 1934.

The Galleria also incorporates four smaller museums: the Museo Boncompagni Ludovisi for the decorative arts, the Museo Hendrik C. Andersen, the Raccolta Manzù and the Museo Mario Praz.

La Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea is Italy's national gallery of modern and contemporary art, founded in 1883 on the initiative of the then minister Guido Baccelli. It stands on viale delle Belle Arti, in the Villa Borghese park near the Villa Giulia.

It displays about 1,100 paintings and sculptures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries — the largest such collection in Italy. The Italian holdings run from Canova through Balla, Boccioni, Modigliani, de Chirico, Morandi, Manzù, Burri and Fontana; the foreign ones include Braque, Calder, Cézanne, Degas, Duchamp, Giacometti, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Monet, Pollock, Rodin and Van Gogh.

The building is part of the story. Cesare Bazzani designed it and it was built between 1911 and 1915, with friezes on the façade by Ermenegildo Luppi, Adolfo Laurenti and Giovanni Prini and four figures of Fame holding bronze wreaths by Adolfo Pantaresi and Albino Candoni. Bazzani then doubled it in size in 1934.

The Galleria also incorporates four smaller museums: the Museo Boncompagni Ludovisi for the decorative arts, the Museo Hendrik C. Andersen, the Raccolta Manzù and the Museo Mario Praz.

A purpose-built national gallery, which is rarer in Rome than it sounds. Almost every major collection in this city is housed in something built for another purpose — a palace, a villa, a power station. Cesare Bazzani's building of 1911–1915 was designed from the start to hold a national collection of modern art, and the rooms show it: long, tall, top-lit, and sized for sculpture as much as for painting.

The façade is a sculptural programme in its own right. Friezes by Ermenegildo Luppi, Adolfo Laurenti and Giovanni Prini run across it, with four figures of Fame holding bronze wreaths by Adolfo Pantaresi and Albino Candoni. It is worth two minutes from the pavement before going in.

The same architect doubled it. Bazzani's 1934 expansion is why the building reads as one thing rather than as a original plus an annexe — an unusual continuity for a museum that grew.

The modern wing has had a difficult life. Luigi Cosenza's building opened in 1988 and shut ten years later over safety concerns; a Diener & Diener scheme was developed in 1999 and 2000 and put on hold in 2003; work in 2018 finally made Luigi Cosenza's building safe to use. A visitor walking a gallery of twentieth-century art is therefore also walking a twentieth-century argument about what to build next to it.

The institution came first and the building followed by nearly thirty years. The gallery was founded in 1883 at the instance of the minister Guido Baccelli, with a national remit for modern and contemporary art. That order of events matters: the collection was formed to a policy rather than inherited from a family, which is why it is broad where Roman collections are usually deep in one taste.

Then it was built for, by one architect, in one go. Cesare Bazzani designed the present building on viale delle Belle Arti and it went up between 1911 and 1915, near the Villa Giulia in the Villa Borghese park. Its façade carries friezes by Ermenegildo Luppi, Adolfo Laurenti and Giovanni Prini, and four figures of Fame holding bronze wreaths sculpted by Adolfo Pantaresi and Albino Candoni.

And then doubled, by the same hand. Bazzani expanded the museum in 1934, doubling its size. Museums usually grow by annexe and the joins show; here they largely do not.

The one campaign that went wrong is the most recent. A new building by Luigi Cosenza was inaugurated in 1988 and closed ten years later over safety concerns. A project by Diener & Diener developed in 1999 and 2000 was put on hold in 2003. Work in 2018 made Luigi Cosenza's building safe to use again. Twenty years of a national gallery's expansion were spent on a wing that could not be entered.

How long is the ticket valid? Three hours. The window is chosen when you buy, and it exists to control how many people are inside for fire-safety reasons. You may leave and re-enter within it.

What does it cost? €15.00 full; €2.00 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25; €10.00 if you hold a Galleria Borghese ticket from the same day; €12.75 with a Santa Cecilia Card.

What is "da Canova a Canova"? The gallery's own name for its Galleria Borghese offer — show a Borghese entrance ticket from the same day and pay €10 instead of €15. Both galleries hold work by Canova.

Is it open on Mondays? No. Tuesday to Sunday, 9.00 to 19.00, with last admission 45 minutes before closing.

What is in the collection? About 1,100 paintings and sculptures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries — the largest such collection in Italy. Canova, Balla, Boccioni, Modigliani, de Chirico, Morandi, Manzù, Burri and Fontana; and Braque, Calder, Cézanne, Degas, Duchamp, Giacometti, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Monet, Pollock, Rodin and Van Gogh.

Is it accessible? The gallery states total accessibility, with lifts and platform lifts and two wheelchairs available including for independent use — but the accessible entrance is at via Gramsci 71, not the main address on viale delle Belle Arti.

Who built it? Cesare Bazzani, between 1911 and 1915, and he doubled it in size in 1934. The gallery itself was founded in 1883.

Are there other museums inside it? Four: the Museo Boncompagni Ludovisi, the Museo Hendrik C. Andersen, the Raccolta Manzù and the Museo Mario Praz all form part of the Galleria Nazionale.