View source for Pinacotheca

{{short description|Public art gallery}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Milan - Pinacothèque de Brera - Cour intérieure.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The [[Pinacoteca di Brera]] in [[Milan]].]]
A '''pinacotheca''' (Latin [[calque|borrowing]] from {{langx|grc|πινακοθήκη|pinakothēkē}} = {{langx|grc|πίναξ|[[pinax]]|(painted) board, tablet|label=none}} + {{langx|grc|θήκη|thēkē|box, chest|label=none}}) was a picture gallery in either [[ancient Greece]] or [[ancient Rome]]. The name is specifically used for the building containing pictures which formed the left wing of the [[Propylaea (Acropolis of Athens)|Propylaea on the Acropolis]] at Athens, Greece. Though [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] speaks of the pictures "which time had not effaced",<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Description of Greece'', [https://archive.org/details/pausaniassdescri01pausuoft/page/30 book I, chapter xxii, page 31, section 6], translated by [[J. G. Frazer]] (1898)</ref> which seems to point to [[fresco painting]], the fact that there is no trace of preparation for [[stucco]] on the walls implies that the paintings were [[easel]] pictures. The Romans adopted the term for the room in a private house containing pictures, statues, and other works of art.

In the modern world the word is often used as a name for a public [[art gallery]] concentrating on paintings, mostly in Italy (as "Pinacoteca"), such as the [[Pinacoteca Vaticana]] of the [[Vatican Museums]] (which is usually meant when the plain word is used), the [[Pinacoteca di Brera]] in Milan (more often "the Brera" informally), the [[Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli]] built on the roof of the former [[Lingotto]] Fiat factory in Turin, Italy, with others in [[Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna|Bologna]] and [[Pinacoteca Nazionale (Siena)|Siena]]. In Brazil, there is the [[Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo]]. In Paris, the [[Pinacothèque de Paris]]. In Munich the three main galleries are called the [[Alte Pinakothek]] ([[old master]]s), [[Neue Pinakothek]] (19th century) and [[Pinakothek der Moderne]]. The [[Pinacotheca, Melbourne]], was a gallery for avant-garde art from 1967 to 2002. At [[Hallbergmoos]], near Munich Airport, there was the Pinakothek Hallbergmoos (20th and 21st century) between 2010 and 2014.

==See also==
* [[Glyptotheque]]

==References==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Pinacotheca|volume=21|page=616|ref=unset}}
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{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Ancient Greek painting]]
[[Category:Roman Empire art]]
[[Category:Art museums and galleries in Greece]]
[[Category:Acropolis of Athens]]
[[Category:Types of art museums and galleries]]
[[Category:Defunct art museums and galleries]]
[[Category:Rooms]]
[[Category:History of museums]]


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