Pinacoteca di Brera

The Pinacoteca di Brera is anchored by a grand, rectangular inner courtyard enclosed by two stories of stone arcades. In the center of this space stands a bronze statue of Napoleon, cast by the sculptor Antonio Canova, which depicts the French emperor as Mars the Peacemaker. This palace was originally a fourteenth-century convent before its transformation by the Jesuits and, later, its designation as a home for the arts under Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.