In Milan, northern Italy, there is a museum of art called the Pinacoteca di Brera. It is a byproduct of the cultural activity of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts (also known as the "Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera" or "Accademia di Brera"), which also shares space in the Palazzo Brera. It houses one of the most notable collections of Italian painting.

The Palazzo Brera, which is similar to the Bra in Verona, gets its name from the German braida, a Low Latin term for heath that means overgrown territory.

There was a residence there that belonged to the "Umiliati" fraternity (donation of 1034). The confraternity was disbanded in 1569, and its assets were given to the Milanese archbishop before being transferred to the Jesuits in 1572. By Francesco Maria Ricchini, it underwent a significant restructuring (1627-28). The palace continued to house both the Jesuit-founded library and the Milan Astronomical Observatory after the Jesuits were driven out of Piedmont in 1772. The newly constructed botanical garden's herbarium was added in 1774. When the academy was formally established in 1776 with Giuseppe Parini serving as dean, the buildings were expanded according to the plans of Giuseppe Piermarini. While directing the city's urban planning initiatives, such as the public gardens (1787-1788) and the Piazza Fontana, Piermarini also taught at the academy for 20 years (1780-1782).

The Parini-founded Academy was given a collection of ancient piece molds to better teach architecture, sculpture, and other arts. These molds were crucial for establishing a polished neoclassicism in the students.

During the redistribution of Italian artwork that characterized the Napoleonic era, the Academy acquired its first paintings for the picture gallery under Parini's successors, Abbé Carlo Bianconi (1778-1802) and the renowned scholar-artist Giuseppe Bossi (1802-1807). Bossi wanted to assemble a collection in the style of Florence's Uffizi Gallery. Napoleon's new kingdom of Italy, which had Milan as its capital, amassed a variety of paintings for preservation, most of them coming from disgruntled convents. The Marriage of the Virgin by Raphael was a significant work in the initial collection.

By collaborating with First French Empire artists like David, Pietro Benvenuti, Vincenzo Camuccini, Canova, Thorvaldsen, and the archaeologist Ennio Quirino Visconti, the Academy extended its perspective on culture. As a response to the Paris Salons, a series of yearly exhibits with a prize system started in 1805 under the direction of Bossi. Throughout the 19th century, Milan was known as the cultural center of Italian current painting. Being a precursor to the Sopraintendenze delle Belle Arti of the present, the Commissione di Ornato, the artistic committee of the Academy, had a controlling effect over public monuments. On August 15, 1809, the Pinacoteca received its official opening, displaying in its galleries pieces that were typical of Italian schools from the late Middle Ages onward.

The Pinacoteca di Brera continued to get wealthy during the ensuing decades. As the Accademia developed into a facility for the instruction of art history, the Romantic era witnessed the triumph of academic history paintings, led at the Accademia by Francesco Hayez, and the introduction of landscape as an acceptable academic genre, inspired by Massimo D'Azeglio and Giuseppe Bisi. New revenue was generated by the abolition of convents in 1811–1812. There were also individual donations, including the Oggioni collection in 1855.

The Gallery of Paintings and the Academy were split apart in 1882. Exhibitions were downsized to triennial events starting in 1891, and individual architectural projects were created. Items with solely didactic value were eliminated from the show as a result of the division. The collection was relocated to Rome during World War One for protection. In order to increase corporate sponsorship and augment current donations, the "Association of Friends of Brera and Milanese Museums" was established.

The Academy's director, Camillo Boito, had Luca Beltrami as a student during the avant-garde period when modernism was taking root, while Cesare Tallone taught Carlo Carrà and Achille Funi.

Astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli spent forty years living at the Brera Observatory, and the Orto Botanico di Brera is a renowned botanical garden located behind the Pinacoteca. The director Fernanda Wittgens insured the Pinacoteca's artwork during World War II, despite the structure suffering serious bomb damage in 1943 (it fell in 26 out of the building's 34 sales). Thanks to significant funding from several prominent Milanese families, including the Bernocchi family, as well as the efforts of the architect-designer Piero Portaluppi, Gualtiero Galmanini, and the superintendent Fernanda Wittgens, the Pinacoteca started its slow ascent from the ruins in February 1946. The cycle of paintings affixed to the Mocchirolo oratory (14th century) is among the primary acquisitions, and the works were once more evacuated during the Second World War. In 1943, the palace was bombed. Many areas of the palace had to be rebuilt due to irreparable damage; nonetheless, changes were made to better showcase the paintings.

The collection has grown over the years because to private contributions like the Jesi collection and the Vital bequest, as well as works by Italian 20th-century painters (Boccioni, Modigliani, Morandi, Carlo Carrà, and others).