The Hall of the Maidens in the Museum of Fine Arts, Copley Square, with Casts from the Athenæum Collection

Having been trained as an artist in his native Italy, Meneghelli was in the United States by 1876 and thereafter painted small canvases many of which depicted interior views of art galleries and museums. This painting depicts a sculpture gallery in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which had been founded in 1870. When the Museum’s first building opened in Copley Square in 1876, the Museum’s collection was relatively small and many of the objects exhibited there were loans. The Athenæum was the most active among the several area institutions that lent works of art to the new Museum: this view shows many plaster casts from the Athenæum’s art collection, including the Barberini Faun, the Laocoon group, and Michelangelo’s Night.