museum of art located in Frankfurt am Main, Ger. It was founded in 1816 by a bequest from the banker Johann Friedrich Städel (1728–1816), who donated his fortune and his art collection to found the institution as an art museum and art school. The institute opened its art collection to the public in 1817. The museum contains examples of work from most of the western European schools of painting since the Middle Ages and is particularly rich in German, Dutch, Flemish, and Italian paintings from the 16th through the 18th century. Nineteenth-century German painting is comprehensively represented as well.