The National Picture Gallery is located inside the former Arsenal, in what is now the Museum Citadel. The building, designed by Veronese architects Cecchini and Gazzola in the 1960s, runs on three levels, incorporating and adapting to the pre-existing emergencies, consisting of the Spanish and Savoy-era fortifications. The earliest pictorial nucleus of the collection was formed in the 19th century, following the laws for the liquidation of the ecclesiastical axis and the dispersal of the furnishings of the Stampacian church of St. Francis. Other works flowed into the state’s heritage through donations and purchases on the antiquities market. The most significant pictorial collection is the 15th- and 16th-century retables. Among the Catalan masters, the names of Joan Mates, Joan Figuera, Raphael Thomas, and Joan Barcelo emerge, while strong personalities such as the anonymous Masters of Castelsardo and Sanluri stand out in the late 15th century. The 16th-century Sardinian school of painting is represented by the Stampace workshop in which the Cavaro family operated, whose greatest exponent is Pietro, an artist documented between 1508 and 1538. The Pinacoteca’s painting collection also includes paintings dating from the 17th to the 20th century from various Italian artistic movements, Neapolitan and Genoese in particular.
