In the heart of the historic center of Salerno, on the main floor of the seventeenth-century Palazzo Pinto, the Provincial Art Gallery of Salerno has found a permanent home since 2001, whose collection of paintings is fundamental for the knowledge of the history of local art and the surrounding area. Since the beginning, the Province of Salerno has played a central role in the recovery of the archaeological and historical-artistic heritage after the devastation of the Second World War. The history of the Pinacoteca unfolds over a period of time in which two world wars occurred. Between 1927 and 1938, works dating from the 15th to the 18th century were recovered, to which were added painted groups, mostly from the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Start date: 16th century. This corpus, during the late ineties, was expanded with the section dedicated to foreign artists. Palazzo Pinto stands in the heart of the historic city center of Salerno, along one of its main roads, the Via dei Mercanti, historically home to numerous and prestigious commercial and artisan activities. Home of the Pinto family until 1910, a noble family of Norman origin whose first attestations date back to the early 1200s, ascribed at least since the 16th century to the seat of Portanova. The current layout of the building dates back to no later than the mid-17th century: from that date onwards, there was a gradual expansion of the residence, through the acquisition of other buildings bordering the south and the covering of a loggia on the first floor, thus creating a much larger noble residence Particular attention is paid to the facade on Via dei Mercanti which, with the use of architectural registers, harmonizes the complex complex, representing one of the most balanced examples of facades among the noble residences of Salerno.
In the land registry of 1754, you can read a description of the building and itis clear that the owner at the time was Don Matteo Pinto. Other documents testify to modifications made in the 18th century. Inside the entrance hall, on the left side, are the stairs leading to the building. On March 15, 1944, during the presence of the Badoglio.I Government, was founded the Istituto Superiore di Magistero di Salerno with its headquarters in Palazzo Pinto, the first step in the rebirth of university studies in the city. From 1910, the first floor was hosted the provincial library until 1961.Following the earthquake of 1980, the building was the subject of restoration work. Since 2000, work has been carried out to consolidate the floors, restore the systems and finishes of the entrance hall and the first floor, whose rooms have housed the Provincial Art Gallery of Salerno since February 2001.

Visiting the rooms where the paintings are exhibited, you will see a fascinating gallery of sacred representations, landscapes, still lifes, portraits, grouped in five families:

• From the Southern Renaissance to late Mannerism, a room that displays the valuable panels of Andrea Sabatini from Salerno and the Master of the Coronation of Eboli.
• From Caravaggio's naturalism to Giordano's late Baroque, with the interesting seventeenth-century paintings by Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, Andrea De Lioni, Carlo Rosa.
• From the Solimena Academy to genre painting, with numerous eighteenthcentury paintings by Francesco Solimena and his Academy.
• From the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, with the works of authors from Salerno and Amalfi, such as Tafuri, Avallone, Capone, etc.
• The works of foreign artists, mostly German, who lived on the Coast in the period between the two world wars, such as Irene Kowaliska and Monica Hannasch, who also loved to cultivate the art of ceramics.

The exhibition is divided into three sections, divided according to a chronological criterion:

• The first section has paint from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century and occupies rooms A,B,C.
• in Sala B: Naturalism Caravaggio artists. The pictorial group that goes from the 17th to the 18th century includes works that are inspired by Caravaggio's naturalism. Some examples are Salome with the head of the Baptist from the workshop of Battistello Caracciolo and the half-length of Saint Paul by a follower of Caracciolo. Also belonging to this group are the Apparition of Saint James by Andrea De Lione and the canvases depicting themes from the Old Testament.
• in Sala C: 18th century pictorial production Eighteenth-century pictorial production began in the most strictly figurative sphere and then expanded into a series of further artistic genres, such as religious , portraits, still lifes, genre scenes and landscapes.
• The second section has paint by artists from Salerno and the Coast. occupies rooms D,E.
• in Sala D: Salernitans and Coastal. The path of the Salernitans and Coastal Section, whose paintings have been exhibited since its inauguration in the Provincial Art Gallery of Salerno. The continuous purchase of paintings by the Provincial Administration of Salerno allows visitors a broad overview of the artists who lived in the Salerno area between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. The section exhibits works starting from 1927, the date that marks the closing of the First exhibition among artists from Salerno. This section includes a group of paintings grouped under the name of Salerno and Coastal artists, the authors being artists native to Salerno and the Amalfi coast: the Salerno artists Raffaele Tafuri, Gaetano Esposito, Gaetano d’Agostino, Pasquale Avallone, Guglielmo Beraglia, Olga Schiavo, Clemente Tafuri, Olga Napoli, Paolo Signorino, Guido Gambone and Carmine De Angelis and the coastal artists Gaetano Capone, Antonio Ferrigno, Luigi Paolillo, Luca Albino, Manfredi Nicoletti. The exhibition traces a thematic itinerary and not by author, suggesting that all artists were inspired by recurring themes, ranging from passages to local folklore, to portraits of relatives, friends or notables.
  
• in Sala E: The decorated room. In a small decorated room, following the Salernitans' room D and the Costaioli's, the portrait of Gennaro Pinto dominates, who generously donated the first floor of his palace to the Province of Salerno. The portrait of the donor is flanked by pictorial images, from the late nineteenth century, of some interiors of the same Palazzo Pinto, through which one has an authentic image of how the ancient palace appeared when it was inhabited by the Baron Pinto family
• The third section has paint by foreign artists and occupies room F.
• in Sala F: The foreign artists section. The nineteenth century saw the entry of the province of Salerno into the panorama of European travel: the sheer cliffs, the ruined coastal towers and the difficult practicability of the strip of the "lunate Gulf of Salerno" struck the romantic imagination of foreigners who began to prefer the Amalfi coast. The territory of the province of Salerno has always been a favorite destination for foreign artists from the Grand Tour. The Grand Tour was a training trip for artists and intellectuals of the aristocracy that began in the seventeenth century and continued until the Second World War. In the Baroque era, interest in the Salerno territory was due to the renewed interest in Magna Graecia following the rediscovery of Paestum. After the Second World War, the Amalfi coast was of great interest. A recurring theme in the works of artists who depicted the Amalfi coast were scenes of everyday life and landscapes. A section is dedicated to foreign artists, of particular importance in a province like Salerno that from Cilento to the Amalfi Coast was traveled by the heirs of the Grand Tour and formed following numerous bequests, donated by relatives or friends of the artists who created the works exhibited here such as Stefan Andres, Kurt Craemer, Richard Dölker, Monica Hannasch, Irene Kowaliska, Bruno Marquardt, Vassilij Necitailov, Lisel Oppel, Karli Sohn – Rethel, Michael Theile, Peter Willburger. The section dedicated to foreigners was actually created on the occasion of the presentation of a group of works acquired by the Province of Salerno by the artist Peter Wilburger.

• Thanks to Eng. Gioita Caiazzo, director of the Cultural Networks and Systems sector of the Province of Salerno, for the n.o. for digital diffusion.
• Thanks to Lucio Afeltra for his active collaboration and for writing the texts.