Academy Gallery
Academy Gallery
museums
Via Ricasoli, 60, 50122 Firenze, Italia
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Like the Uffizi, the Galleria dell’Accademia, is one of the most popular museums in Florence, and it is practically synonymous with Michelangelo’s David. It was built in the eighteenth century, as an educational place where the students from the adjacent Accademia di Belle Arti could study and copy masterpieces. However, starting in 1873, when the original David was removed from Piazza Signoria (replaced by a copy) and brought here, that the Galleria became known as a museum of Michelangelo’s works. Over the years other works by the master were brought over: the four Prisoners – incomplete, powerful figures trapped in the marble that were started for Michelangelo’s first version of the Tomb of Pope Julius II in Rome; the Saint Matthew, made for the Florence cathedral; the controversial Palestrina Pietà (one of four Pietàs he carved). If the most famous nucleus is the section dedicated to sculpture (in addition to Michelangelo’s works there is the large model for the Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna and the Gipsoteca Bartolini, a collection of plaster casts named for the famous nineteenth century sculptor), the picture gallery, too, is very rich. In the rooms that occupy two floors there are paintings from the XIII-XIV centuries (Maestro della Maddalena, painters from Giotto’s school, Lorenzo Monaco, etc.), the XV-XVI centuries (Perugino, Fra’ Bartolomeo, Filippino Lippi, Pontormo, Scheggia who did the famous Adimari Chest, Botticelli and others). There is also an unusual group of Russian icons from the Lorraine collection, and another part of the museum hosts antique musical instruments (including some Stradivarius violins), and an exhibition tracing the evolution of the piano that was invented in Florence by Bartolomeo Cristofori early in the eighteenth century
museums
Via Ricasoli, 60, 50122 Firenze, Italia
Show on map
Like the Uffizi, the Galleria dell’Accademia, is one of the most popular museums in Florence, and it is practically synonymous with Michelangelo’s David. It was built in the eighteenth century, as an educational place where the students from the adjacent Accademia di Belle Arti could study and copy masterpieces. However, starting in 1873, when the original David was removed from Piazza Signoria (replaced by a copy) and brought here, that the Galleria became known as a museum of Michelangelo’s works. Over the years other works by the master were brought over: the four Prisoners – incomplete, powerful figures trapped in the marble that were started for Michelangelo’s first version of the Tomb of Pope Julius II in Rome; the Saint Matthew, made for the Florence cathedral; the controversial Palestrina Pietà (one of four Pietàs he carved). If the most famous nucleus is the section dedicated to sculpture (in addition to Michelangelo’s works there is the large model for the Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna and the Gipsoteca Bartolini, a collection of plaster casts named for the famous nineteenth century sculptor), the picture gallery, too, is very rich. In the rooms that occupy two floors there are paintings from the XIII-XIV centuries (Maestro della Maddalena, painters from Giotto’s school, Lorenzo Monaco, etc.), the XV-XVI centuries (Perugino, Fra’ Bartolomeo, Filippino Lippi, Pontormo, Scheggia who did the famous Adimari Chest, Botticelli and others). There is also an unusual group of Russian icons from the Lorraine collection, and another part of the museum hosts antique musical instruments (including some Stradivarius violins), and an exhibition tracing the evolution of the piano that was invented in Florence by Bartolomeo Cristofori early in the eighteenth century