"Look," he said, "despite its anatomical flaws, I would fight to the death against anyone who would want to remove the painting if it hung in a gallery painted on canvas."

An irregular, open-ended rectangle, about the size of a football field, the plaza is faced by two-story arcaded houses with wooden galleries painted green.

Installed in spacious galleries painted in subdued shades of tan and eggplant, it is the largest show the museum has devoted to a living artist.

Near the hill is the celebrated covered gallery, entirely painted with garden scenes and flowers and vignettes of historical events.

Quitting this hall, my guide led me through a gallery richly painted in compartments, with a barbaric mixture of gold in the colours, like pictures by Louis Cranach.

The most notable is that of the Semi-Gods Ceiling, a gallery of mythological and allegorical figures painted by Pinturicchio in 1501.

There is a large gallery painted by in chiaroscuro style Antonio Bonetti with sculptures by Ubaldo Gandolfi.

The intensity of these works is heightened by galleries painted bright yellow or red, an iffy tactic that, for once, makes the art sing.

The most recent additions to the decorations of the church are the murals, which cover the east wall above the galleries, painted in 1932.

THE Morris Museum is dressed to kill with a suite of galleries painted purple, cinnabar, green earth and umber.