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In this work of 1911, the Milanese are dashing for the doors of Caffè Zucca (see Zucca (Caffè Miani), Milan). A companion, The City Rises , is also here.

The Brera worked hard to reconstitute this altarpiece of 1410. The five main panels came with Napoleon; the other four were tracked down and purchased later.

Mantegna was one of the Renaissance’s greatest perspective virtuosos, and this is his foreshortened masterpiece, painted in about 1500.

The Brera houses several masterpieces by the early Venetian Renaissance master Bellini, including two very different versions of Virgin and Child . One is almost a Flemish-style portrait, painted when Bellini was 40. The other is a luminous scene of colour and light, painted 40 years later.

Tintoretto uses his mastery of drama and light in this work of the 1560s to highlight the finding of the body of St Mark by Venetian merchants in the Crusades.

This 1472 scene shows Piero’s patron the Duke of Montefeltro kneeling before the Virgin and Child. Just months earlier, the Duke’s beloved wife had given birth to a male heir who tragically died within weeks.

In this early work depicting the Virgin Mary’s terrestrial marriage to Joseph, Raphael took the idea and basic layout from his Umbrian master Perugino, tweaking it with a perfected single-point perspective.

This 1605 work was Caravaggio’s second painting of the Supper. The deep black shadows and bright highlights create mood and tension.

The undisputed master of 18th-century Venetian cityscapes did at least seven versions of this scene of St Mark’s bell tower and the Doge’s Palace.

This passionate 1859 scene – painted when Hayez was 68 – was intended as an allegory of the struggle for independence and the importance of family.