The Accademia Gallery, Florence, offers a wide range of artworks
Florence’s Accademia Gallery (“Galleria della Accademia” in Italian) is one of the city’s five most visited galleries. It is the second most popular attraction in Florence (the first is the Uffizi Gallery) and is visited by thousands of visitors each year.
The Accademia Gallery, founded in 1784, is a small museum compared to other famous Italian museums.
The Accademia Gallery in Florence houses the most extensive collection of Michelangelo’s artwork in the world.
The collection of art there is impressive, mainly because it contains some of the most significant sculptures ever created. It is a sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti called David.
Although most visitors come to see the enormous marble statue the David, the Accademia Gallery also houses other stunning masterpieces.
Accademia Gallery Artwork Collection
SCULPTURES
Accademia Gallery’s sculpture collection includes works by Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, and Giambologna.
Visitors to the Galleria dell’Accademia are welcomed by a model of the Rape of the Sabine Women by the great artist known as Giambologna.
As you pass through the Galleria dei Prigioni, you will find Michelangelo Buonarroti’s unfinished sculptures, including St Matthew and Palestrina Pietà, before arriving at the most famous sculpture in the world.
PAINTINGS
The Academia Gallery’s art collection spans 13 th century 19 th-century works.
In this painting collection, you can see Lorenzo Monaco’s early Gothic artwork and impressive altarpieces from the 1500s and 1600s. Among the outstanding Renaissance paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Fra Bartolomeo, and Filippino Lippi, you will be able to enrich your viewing experience.
There is an important collection of paintings by 19 th-century artists who studied or taught at the Accademia di Belle Arti in the Gipsoteca.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
In the Department of Musical Instruments, which opened in 2001, the Florentine Conservatorio “Luigi Cherubini” houses a collection that displays 50 instruments from the private collections of the grand dukes of Tuscany, Medici, and Lorraine.
Aside from the instruments, visitors can also admire paintings by Anton Domenico Gabbiani and Bartolomeo Bimbi, whose paintings depict the musical culture of the Medici court.
Multimedia stations also offer a panorama of music during the Florentine grand duchy period so visitors can hear the instruments’ sounds.
HISTORICAL ARCHIVES
There are two historical archives at Accademia Gallery: the Lorenzo Bartolini Historical Archive and the Gatti Kraus Donation.
Documents included in the archive include correspondence, letters related to commissions, drafts, legal and accounting documents, notebooks with drawings, and printed material.
In the Galleria dell’Accademia, the Musical Instruments Department has a room dedicated to Alessandro Kraus, a Florentine musicologist, anthropologist, and collector from the late 19th century.
Get the most out of your Academia Gallery visit 2023
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