Galleria dell'Accademia

The Galleria dell'Accademia is a combination artist workshop and museum, in some ways representative of the manner in which the Renaissance artists exhibited their work in the space where it was created. The museum's exterior (photo to the left) is unassuming in comparison to galleries such as the Uffizi, but this belies its size. The museum has expanded from the original workshop into the building which once belonged to the San Matteo hospital, and also to an adjoining part of the ex-convent San Niccolò in Cafaggio. The Galleria dell'Accademia contains some of the gems of the Renaissance. The entrance to the museum takes one past a row of sculptures Michelangelo created for the tomb of Pope Julius II (many were never completed), and this promenade of sculptures leads to the monumental apse which contains Michelangelo's David, shown in the photo to the right. Although it is one of the more famous images of the Renaissance, pictures do not do justice to either the detail nor the scale of his creation. In a word, David is epic in proportion, perhaps three to four times larger than life-size. And the detail is such that, save for the size, a viewer could mistake the sculpture for a living figure covered in alabaster. David has resided in the Galleria dell'Accademie since being moved from the front of the Palazzo Vecchio in 1873. On the sides of the David's apse, there are paintings by Florentine artists of the first and second part of the 16th Century. They document the pictorial period during the years of Michelangelo's labors, extending through the Counter-Reformation. To the left of the entrance to the museum  is a gallery which hosts the paintings of Florentine artists of the first part of the 16th Century. Among these paintings you can find works by Fra' Bartolomeo, Andrea del Sarto and Perugino. Dominating the room (photo to the left) is the original plaster model from Giambologna's last work, The Rape of the Sabine Women, which currently resides among the outdoor sculptures at the Loggia dei Lanzi. The Galleria dell'Accademie also has three Florentine rooms which contain a series of paintings of the 15th Century which document, in a short but articulated way, the pictorial production of the main shops ("botteghe") which were active in Florence during the time of Masaccio, Piero della Francesca and Botticelli.

Highlights of the Galleria dell'Accademia [Click on Photos to Enlarge, Hit Browser "Back" Arrow to Return to this Page]
The Bearded Slave and Atlas (unfinished sculpture for Pope Julius II's tomb)	Plaster Model of Giambologna's Rape of the Sabine Women	The Cassone Adimari (ca 1450), according to the tradition, was the front panel of a wedding chest, painted by the younger brother of Masaccio, nicknamed “Lo Scheggia”.	Coronation of the Virgin by Jacopo di Cione