Collection of Timeless Treasures : Renowned Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena includes prized items from the Renaissance to the 20th Century.

The Norton Simon Museum is readily considered by art mavens to hold the finest art collection amassed in the second half of the 20th Century.

“The Norton Simon Museum is certainly one of the great collections of our age,” Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, told The Times last June upon the death of the Pasadena museum’s founder, Norton Simon, a businessman turned art collector.

John Walsh, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, has called Simon “the best collector of our time.”

European art from the Renaissance through the 20th Century constitutes the majority of the collection’s 12,000 works. Paintings by Raphael, Botticelli, Rubens and Rembrandt are among the 1,000 works consistently on view, as well as Manet, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and Cezanne in the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries.

The 20th-Century section has works by Picasso, Matisse and German Expressionists such as Kandinsky and Klee.

A gallery devoted to Asian sculpture from India and Southeast Asia includes some pieces that are more than 2,000 years old. In contrast, the work of modern and contemporary Western sculptors stands in the attractive outdoor sculpture garden.

The museum was founded in 1924 as the Pasadena Art Institute. The present building opened to the public in 1969 as the Pasadena Art Museum. In 1974, Norton Simon took over the museum’s collection and opened the Norton Simon Museum in 1975.

Noon: Your tour begins outside the entrance, where you will be greeted by Rodin’s sculpture “Burghers of Calais” (1884-1888). With its classical and modern aspects, it stands here as a monument to art history and as an usher to the range of art within the museum.

Enter, pay for admission, and go to the right, to the north wing. Turn right again to encounter a long hallway displaying Giovanni Francesco Romanelli’s “Dido and Aeneas Tapestry Cartoons.” These large, elaborate images from the 17th Century tell the story of the two lovers from Virgil’s “Aeneid.”

12:15 p.m.: Beyond Romanelli’s work is the gallery of Italian and Flemish Renaissance art. Among the masterpieces is Lucas Cranach the Elder’s oil-on-panel “Adam and Eve,” circa 1530.

12:30 p.m.: Pass by Romanelli’s work again, on your away to the other side of the north wing. Stop to take in the incredible edibles in the large painting “Still Life with Fruit and Vegetables,” by Flemish artist Frans Snyders (1579-1675).

On this side of the north wing, you’ll see primarily 17th- and 18th-Century painting. Works vary, from the heroic, emotional portrait “Saint Ignatius of Loyola” (circa 1620-22) by Rubens to the light-hearted “The Happy Lovers” (or The Bird Cage) and “Music,” both circa 1760-65 by Fragonard.

A highlight of the Simon collection, the breathtaking “Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Rose” (1633), by Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbaran, is in this area. This painting is his only signed and dated still life--he’s best-known for his numerous paintings of saints.

12:45 p.m.: Step outside into the sculpture garden. Stroll among such works as Rodin’s 1905 “Walking Man,” and the 1950s sculptures of Henry Moore.

1 p.m.: Return inside and walk back toward the entrance. Before entering the museum’s central area, turn into a small gallery containing 20th-Century sculpture. The work of Moore (1898-1986), Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957), Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) and others are all abstract, conveying a sense of excitement and vitality.

Proceed through the central area to the museum’s south wing, where you will be treated to an excellent selection of Realist, Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Cubist paintings. Among the gems are Van Gogh’s 1885 “Head of a Peasant Woman in a White Bonnet” and his 1888 “Portrait of the Artist’s Mother”; Cezanne’s “Tulips in a Vase” (circa 1890-92); Rousseau’s 1910 “Exotic Landscape”; and Diego Rivera’s 1941 “The Flower Vendor.”

Cubism is adequately represented here with paintings by Liubov Popova, Picasso, Braque and Gris.

1:30 p.m.: Beyond the Realist paintings of Corot, Courbet and others is the dimly lit, rather dramatic-looking gallery of ancient stone and bronze sculpture from India and Southeast Asia.

1:45 p.m.: Make your way down the spiral staircase to the lower level to sample the museum’s impressive collection of dancers by Degas (1834-1917), which appear in paintings, pastels, charcoal drawings and bronze sculptures. Nearby is a small but robust group of paintings, “Encountering the Dutch Likeness: Portraiture in 17th-Century Holland.” It includes a self-portrait by Rembrandt.

2 p.m.: Follow the strains of Indian music to the special exhibit, “A Tale of Three Muses: Music, Poetry and Art in India and Nepal.”

On view through July 31, this show presents 44 small paintings known as ragamalas , from the Indian language for garlands of musical modes. This genre of painting originated in the early 17th Century.

2:15 p.m.: Return to the main aisle of the lower level to find another special exhibit, “Kandinsky.” Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), a member of the German Expressionist “Blue Rider” group, was one of four members to be known here in Los Angeles as the “Blue Four.” In 1924, Emmy (Galka) Scheyer had come to the United States to promote the work of Kandinsky and the three other artists: Klee, Alexei Jawlensky and Lyonel Feininger. More than 450 works of art and 800 documents are now in the museum’s Blue Four-Galka Scheyer Collection. It closes Sept. 11.

Move on to “The World of Picasso,” a print show which presents some of his favorite subjects--portraits, nudes, still lifes, artist and model scenes, tributes to Old Masters, animals and bullfights. Prints span the early 1900s to the late 1960s. Ends Nov. 13.

2:45 p.m.: To complete this tour, go back upstairs and check out the Museum Bookshop.

Where and When

What: Norton Simon Museum.

Location: 411 W. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena.

Hours: Noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays.

Price: $4 general, $2 for student with ID and seniors. Children under 12 admitted free. Free parking.

Call: (818) 449-6840.