This article is about the Accademia art gallery in Florence. For the Accademia art gallery in Venice, seeGallerie dell'Accademia.
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Galleria dell'Accademia di FirenzeEstablishedLocationCoordinatesTypeWebsite
Interior of the gallery, with Michelangelo'sDavidvisible in the centre
TheGalleria dell'Accademia di Firenze, or "Gallery of the Academy of Florence", is an art museum inFlorence,Italy. It is best known as the home ofMichelangelo's sculptureDavid. It also has other sculptures by Michelangelo and a large collection of paintings by Florentine artists, mostly from the period 1300–1600, theTrecentoto the Late Renaissance. It is smaller and more specialized than theUffizi, the main art museum in Florence. It adjoins theAccademia di Belle Artior academy of fine arts of Florence, but despite the name has no other connection with it.
In 2016, it had 1.46 million visitors, making it the second most visited art museum in Italy, after the Uffizi (2.02 million).[1]
The Galleria dell'Accademia has housed the originalDavidbyMichelangelosince 1873.[2]The sculpture was allegedly brought to the Accademia for reasons of conservation, although other factors were involved in its move from its previous outdoor location onPiazza della Signoria. The original intention was to create a "Michelangelo museum", with original sculptures and drawings, to celebrate the fourth centenary of the artist's birth. Today, the gallery's small collection of Michelangelo's work includes his four unfinishedPrisoners, intended for the tomb ofPope Julius II, and a statue ofSaint Matthew, also unfinished. In 1939, these were joined by thePalestrina Pietà, discovered in the Barberini chapel inPalestrina, though experts now consider its attribution to Michelangelo to be dubious.
^Accademia GalleryPolo Museale Fiorentino: Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze. Accessed June 2013.
