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The National Picture Gallery has been housed within the Museum Citadel complex since 1992. The Pinacoteca is one of the exhibition venues of the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari. The building that houses it, arranged on three levels, turns out to be the product of a combination of modern intervention and respect for the ancient sixteenth-century structures. Its interior houses paintings of enormous artistic and historical importance. The Picture Gallery has a pictorial collection focused on Sardinia, ranging from the 15th to the 20th century.
The core of the collection is made up of the "retabli," large multi-compartment altarpieces painted on wood, from the Catalan and local school (15th-16th centuries). ( Just to elaborate, Retablo is the Spanish term for a large architecturally framed altarpiece. The retablo may consist of a compartmentalized panel painting, which, depending on the parts of which it is composed, may be a diptych, triptych, or polyptych, but it may also consist of relief compartments, or alternating painted and relief compartments.
The term retablo in Spanish has Latin etymology, from the locution re(tro)tabulum altaris - altar backboard).
This collection was formed in the second half of the 19th century, following the suppression of ecclesiastical institutions and the acquisition of their patrimony by the state. Enriching the holdings is a valuable collection of textiles, embroideries, weavings and baskets, domestic and liturgical furnishings, sculptures, ceramics, weapons, stone elements, coats of arms, goldsmithing and jewelry.
In total there are about 1,300 pieces. Paintings include numerous examples from the workshop of Cavaro, Manais, Figuera, Mates, Marcelo, Castagnola, etc... The collection of textiles, furniture, weapons, etc., on the other hand, are displayed on a rotating basis due to lack of space and include artifacts ranging from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
