Galleria dell’Accademia
The Accademia di Belle Arti is not only a gallery museum that holds Michelangelo’s most famous work, The David. The Accadamia di Belle Arti is also an art school and library.
In 1784, this academy became the umbrella for all of the art schools in Florence by decree of Pietro Leopoldo, then Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Renaissance works on display here include a collection of 15th and 16th century Florentine paintings by artists Paolo Uccello, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sandro Botticelli and Andrea del Sarto. Also on display is Giambologna’s original plaster for the Rape of the Sabine Women.
The work in the Gallery changes from time to time as aquisitions are made and some work is loaned out to other exhibitions. Occassionally work is transferred to more appropriate galleries within Florence.
But the most famous works in this gallery are by Michelangelo. The David, brought here to be restored when it was damaged in the Piazza della Signoria, had a special tribune built for the sculpture. It was put on display here in 1873 and it immediately became a hit with the tourists.
The David was created by Michelangelo between the years of 1500 and 1504 from a block of, what was thought to be, defective marble. The marble, owned by the Operai – those who oversaw the building of the Duomo – was to be commissioned to an artist for one of the Old Testament sculptures
for the cathedral. Two sculptors had previously tried working on the block, Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino, before it was abandoned in the cathedral workshop. Michelangelo started this project when he was twenty-six years old. Originally the intention was to display the statue on the Duomo, but because of the delicate nature of both the marble and the original crack running through the block, it was first considered for a spot under the cover of The Loggia and then it was decided to put it in front of the Palazzo Vecchio.
This David is unique from those sculptures that came before it in that it depicts David before he has slain the giant Goliath, rather than after.
As you wind your way through the line to enter the gallery where The David lives, don’t forget to notice some of Michelanglos’s other breathtaking, and almost modern, work, The Four Prisoners. If the gallery is extremely crowded they are almost invisible, but they are so extraordinarily beautiful that they should not be missed. The Four Prisoners exhibit Michelangelo’s philosophy that a sculpture already exists within its block of marble – the artist is just removing the excess stone.
Photograph: The David, Michelangelo
Accadameia di Belle Arti
Piazza degli Signoria, 50122 Firenze
Via Ricasoli 60 – Firenze
T: 055 2388609
Visiting Hours: 8.15 am – 6.50 pm; the ticket office closes 45 minutes before the museum closing time.
Festivo: 8.15 am – 6.50 pm; the ticket office closes 45 minutes before the museum closing time.
Closed: Monday
Tickets: € 6,50
Similar posts that you might like:
- The Uffizi Gallery
- Photo Of The Day: Palazzo Vecchio
- The Arrival
- Il Bargello
- Contemporary Art In Florence
Tags: florence, michelangelo, museums, the david, tuscany
