Beginning in the late 18th century, the former St. Ignatius monastery began to house altar pieces and other works gathered from religious institutions throughout Bologna. The collection grew considerably after 1815 when many works the French had sent off to the Louvre were returned to Bologna after the fall of the Napoleonic empire. Among the great works from Bolognese churches is Raphael’s “St. Cecilia in Estasi” (Gallery 15), in which the saint, patron of music, is portrayed holding a lute with other instruments strewn at her feet and seems to be in rapture as she listens to a heavenly choir. The museum’s emphasis is on works by Emilian and Bolognese artists. Guido Reni (1575–1642), who was born and is buried in Bologna, dominates Gallery 24 with his “Massacre of the Innocents,” a terrifying visualization of scripture in which two muscular, knife-wielding soldiers set upon a group of screaming women and children. An especially amiable presence is that of Bologna’s own Carracci family in Gallery 23. The three artists—brothers Agostino and Annibale and their cousin Lodovico—opened a famous academy in Bologna in the 1580s, professing their belief in breaking away from mannerism to imbue painting with emotion and passion. Lodovico persevered with a career in art despite being mocked for his slow manner; though he became proficient, he is better known as a teacher than as an artist, as seen in the work of his nephews. Agostino’s masterpiece is “The Communion of St. Jerome,” but the work for which he became best known in some circles was “I Modi” (the Way), a highly erotic series of engravings. His brother Annibale was the greater and more passionate painter, as becomes clear in his darkly moving “Mocking of Christ.”