The work is part of a series of fourteen octagons with stories taken from the Metformosi of Ovid painted by Jacopo Robusti known as Tintoretto (1518-1594) for the Venetian bank Vettore Pisani in 1541, intended to decorate the ceiling of his bedroom in the Palace Pisani of San Paterniano. In 1658 the Pisan heirs sold the series to Duke Francesco I d'Este, who had it placed in the wooden ceiling of the second parade chamber of the Ducal Palace of Modena. The octagons one of the first great trials of the young Robusti. The remaining tables represent the stories of Jupiter and Europe, Mercury puts Argo, Priapus and Lotides to sleep, Semele incinerated by Jupiter, Deucalion and Pirra, The race of Hippomenes, The massacre of the sons of Niobe, Vulcan, Minerva and Love, Apollo and Daphne, The goddess Latona, Orpheus implores Pluto, Pyramus and Thisbe, The Judgment of Midas.

The portrait was commissioned by Francesco I d'Este on the occasion of a state visit to Spain, undertaken in the summer of 1638, thanks to which he hoped to forge a significant alliance with King Philip IV. During this stay the young duke decided to be portrayed by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), official court painter and one of the most acclaimed artists of his time. The portrait, in addition to being realized from a close viewpoint, presents a three-quarter cut, in such a way as to give a sensation of immediacy and proximity, almost intimacy. The painter's careful sense of introspection succeeds in capturing the essence of the young Duke by giving the portrait a patina of informal royalty, not devoid of a hint of ambition and desire for prestige.

The bust that Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) made for Francesco I d'Este comes twelve years after the oil portrait of Velazquez. If in the first case the transition of the young monarch towards maturity is immortalized, the portrait-bust created by Bernini is a typical example of a state portrait, apt to capture and eternalize the magnificence of the sovereign. It was no coincidence that Francesco I d'Este had undertaken to make the courts of Modena and Sassuolo, through a conspicuous program of patronage, two European courts in full title, which in terms of pomp, luxury and sophistication would have been in dialogue with the courts of the major European capitals of the time.

The bust was made by Prospero Sogari Spani, known as Clemente (Reggio Emilia, 1516-1584), commissioned by Duke Ercole II d'Este (1508-1559) who, at the suggestion of his brother Cardinal Ippolito, had chosen as his emblem the representation of Patience, to whom he had dedicated a "dressing room" in the Estense Castle of Ferrara, decorated in turn by a painting by Camillo Filippi with the same allegory and also by this bust. Worthy of note is the decorated armor which represents Pazienza as a tied woman waiting to break free thanks to the drops of water that fall from a jug on the chain to which she is tied. The elegant and delicate profile of the portrayed, as well as the abundance of details and preciousness that cover not only the bust but also the base, are an example of that sophisticated language that characterizes the Emilian mannerism, which saw leading exponents in personality such as Parmigianino (1503-1540), Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (1500-1569), Lelio Orsi (1511-1587), Nicolò dell'Abate (1512-1571) and Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570).

This cello was made for Francesco II d'Este (1660-1694) by Domenico Galli (1649 - 1697), carver, decorator, calligrapher and musician, together with an anonymous luthier. The work itself is a testimony of the eclectic and omnivorous Baroque culture that distinguished Europe in the seventeenth century: it was in fact made with a wide variety of materials, such as maple, fir, jujube and ebony finely carved and inlaid , but there are also tortoise shell, glass and ceramic inserts. The work is a splendid synthesis of two different types that over the centuries have characterized the artistic production and the high craftsmanship in the Padana area, that is the lutherie the wooden marquetry. At the same time, it is a precious testimony to the importance of music within the Este court, even after the transfer of the ducal seat from Ferrara to Modena.

The Spinario of the Galleria Estense is one of the best known examples of a sculptural typology depicting a young man sitting on a rock intent on removing a thorn from the sole of his left foot. Derived from Hellenistic models, the subject enjoyed immense fortune during the Renaissance, especially from the donation of the Lateran bronzes by Sixtus IV (141-1484) in 1471, when the Spinario in bronze currently kept at the Capitoline Museums it became one of the most studied and appreciated works of the antiquarian culture of the time. The work became part of the Este collections through Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509-1572). On the death of the cardinal he appears in the inventories of the duke Alfonso II (1533-1597) and in the late sixteenth century he remembers the restoration commissioned by the duke Cesare d’Este (1562-1628) to the Ferrarese sculptor Francesco Casella.

The oval was made by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) for a series to which also his brother Agostino (1557-1602) and his cousin Ludovico (1555-1619) worked for the private library of Cesare d'Este at the Palazzo dei Diamonds in Ferrara. The ovals depict a series of divinities of classical mythology according to the naturalist style that the Carraccis were developing in those years, merging the compositional norms with the importance of drawing derived from the Florentine manner with the typical colourism of the Venetians. The series can be considered an important test for the Carraccis of a pictorial cycle inspired by classical antiquity, in view of the Farnese Gallery in Rome, whose works would have begun in 1597, as well as one of the last important Este building sites in Ferrara before the devolution of the city to the Papal State, which was to take place in 1598.

The so-called Arpa Estense is a precious artifact, unique in its kind: not only is it a rare example of a musical instrument of the XVI which has reached our days, but its singular history is significant to understand how important music was in court life in the Italy of the time lords. It was built in Rome in 1581, in a workshop of the circle of Giovanni Battista Giacometti. The harp decoration, carried out between 1587 and 1589, was entrusted to the Ferrarese painter Giulio Marescotti, however the design of the upper friezes was executed by Giuseppe Mazzuoli known as il Bastarolo. The execution of the frieze was then carried out by Orazio Lamberti, while the gilding of the same was carried out by Giovan Battista Rosselli. The harp, commissioned by the duke Alfonso II d'Este, destined to the Mantuan Laura Peperara, who with Livia d'Arco and Anna Guarini created a concert of secretive music, also known as "concert of the principal ladies", which made Ferrara a refined center of musical culture.

The work was commissioned to Guercino (1591-1666) by Francesco I d'Este for his personal collections. For its composition it is considered one of the most peculiar of the production of the master of Cento and in general of the painting of fabulae (with mythological subject) of the Emilian seventeenth century. The depiction of Venus, Mars and Love, god of War, represented in an essential and close composition is a topos consolidated since the mature Renaissance. To make the representation and the frontality of the characters more peculiar, especially of Love, which stretches the arch exactly in conjunction with the ideal spectator, originally the client Francesco I, today the visitor who is about to enjoy the work in space and in the context of the museum.

This terracotta sculpture is an example of the realism that Guido Mazzoni (1450 - 1518) succeeds in impressing on his creations, in harmony with the highest results of the artistic culture of the Po Valley in the second half of the fifteenth century, following the lessons of Donatello and Mantegna . Even if the polychromy is not the original one, it still gives the idea of ​​how the sculpture should appear at the time of its realization. Coming from the collection of the Calori Cesi accounts of Modena, but originally in the collection of Pietro Vitali in Busseto, the head entered the Estense Gallery in 1909. It may be what remains of the lost Compianto already in the church of San Lorenzo in Cremona, of we have news of this thanks to the handwritten notes written in the early sixteenth century by the Venetian patrician Marcantonio Michiel (1484–1552).

Antonio Raggi (1624-1686) was one of the most valid and appreciated by contemporaries Gian Lorenzo Bernini's students. The work comes from the acquisitions of Francesco II d'Este and is indicative of the ability with which Raggi interpreted the baroque language of which his master had been one of the main coders. In this small sculptural group, reminiscent of the first essays by Bernini himself, there is indeed a playful reinterpretation of a theme dear to the figurative arts of the early Modern Age, such as the contrast between Sacred Love and Profane Love. The antithesis between Eros and Anteros is represented in a delightful way, portraying them as two puttini engaged in a fight simulation, all made at the same time extremely plausible thanks to the meticulous execution of the details.

The vase, made around 1480, is one of the masterpieces of Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi known as Antico (1460-1528 ca.) for his ability to work bronze by referring to classical models. Originally it was part of the Gonzaga collections in Mantua, hence the name, while it is recorded for the first time in an inventory of objects transported from the Palazzo Ducale to the Liceo di Modena dating back to 24 April 1797. The work was presumably designed to celebrate the wedding of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (1446-1496), count of Rodigo and Bozzolo, and Antonia del Balzo (1461-1538), which took place in 1479, as suggested by the main theme, namely the procession of Tritoni and Naiads celebrating the marriage of Neptune and Amphitrite. The choice of the iconographic theme, as well as the rich decorations with festoons, signs, tablets with emblems and mottos, are a precious testimony of the spread of antiquarian taste in the Padana area during the fifteenth century thanks to the presence of Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) .