The Accademia Carrara was established in Bergamo in 1794, as a combined Pinacoteca and School of Painting, at the initiative of the Bergamo aristocrat Giacomo Carrara (1714–1796), who began the construction of the building to house his rich collection of paintings. The Accademia Carrara is the only Italian museum made up of bequests from important private collectors. From being a museum dedicated to Renaissance painting – with the great masterpieces of Pisanello, Mantegna, Bellini, Botticelli, Raphael, Lotto and Moroni – the Accademia Carrara grew into an art museum tout court, with a broad representation of pictorial genres from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a substantial collection of prints and drawings, and fine decorative art objects including fans, porcelain, small bronzes and medals. The mission of the Accademia Carrara is to actively contribute to the cultural development of the local area, the community and all those who visit it for reasons relating to the conservation, study, enrichment and display of its art collections.