My new favorite museum of all time!

The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana is my new favorite museum.  It is not as famous as di Brera, the other Pinacoteca in Milan.  Pinacoteca means gallery, somewhat, in Italian.  I don't have class on Fridays so today I decided to go down to the center and have lunch and go to the museum by myself.  I had a pizza for lunch, yummm.   Then I walked over to the museum.  They don't allow you to take pictures inside but it houses some of the most amazing pieces.  

Madonna del Padiglione by Botticelli and Basket of Fruit by Caravaggio are two famous ones but we all know my obsession with da Vinci is was brought me there.  Da Vinci's Portrait of a Musician is there as well as hundres of pages of sketches by da Vinci of everything from portraits to machines and weapons.  They had books laid open to pages.  It was unbelievable to see his hand writing, which looked like it was written backwards, and drawings.  Thank god he did them in pen and not graphite!  

The most famous thing Ambrosiana has is the Cartoon for the School of Athens by Raphael, which isn't actually a cartoon.  It's a sketch for a painting that is now in the Vatican.  He used faces of famous painters as the faces for characters in the painting.  Da Vinci's appears in the guise of Aristotle.  The sketch itself took up an entire wall, it is over 25 feet long.  I think seeing sketches is better than seeing the actual painting.  I like seeing the process of the work and seeing the actual lines they drew by hand in the rendering of every face.  The room is completely dark except for dim archival lights on the sketch.  They have several rows of chairs that are slightly reclined so you can see all of it.  It's huge.  I've seen the actual painting and I think the drawing has a much greater presence.  

Aside from the amazing work inside the building itself is unbelievable.  It has a courtyard that is 3 stories tall in the center of the buildings with the galleries surrounding.  I snuck in photos when I could inside when no one was looking.  There were guards all over the place by the famous work but not so much by the others.

The outside.

Walk way around the 2nd floor of the court yard.  Lined with busts of famous people.

Is it strange that I recognize Leonardo even when there is no plaque?

One of the Salons.  The floors and ceilings are just as impressive as the work sometimes.

Behind the rail there is a huge round staircase (with a guard at the bottom).

Ceiling.  Beyond the railing there are empty book cases.  The other part of Ambrosiana is a famous library that is attached to the Catholic University.

Saint Ambrose Church and Library located behind Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.