This article is about the art gallery in Venice. For the Accademia art gallery in Florence, see Galleria dell'Accademia. For other uses, see Accademia.
Gallerie dell'Accademia
Façade of the gallery on Campo della Carità
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The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery of pre-19th-century art in Venice, northern Italy. It is housed in the Scuola della Carità on the south bank of the Grand Canal, within the sestiere of Dorsoduro. It was originally the gallery of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, the art academy of Venice, from which it became independent in 1879, and for which the Ponte dell'Accademia and the Accademia boat landing station for the vaporetto water bus are named. The two institutions remained in the same building until 2004, when the art school moved to the Ospedale degli Incurabili.
It was one of the first institutions to study art restoration starting in 1777 with Pietro Edwards, and formalised by 1819 as a course.
In 1807 the academy was re-founded by Napoleonic decree. The name was changed from Veneta Academia di Pittura, Scultura e Architettura to Accademia Reale di Belle Arti, "royal academy of fine arts", and the academy was moved to the Palladian complex of the Scuola della Carità, where the Gallerie dell'Accademia are still housed. The collections of the Accademia were first opened to the public on 10 August 1817.[1][3]
Later history
The Gallerie dell'Accademia became independent from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia in 1879. Like other state museums in Italy, it falls under the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, the Italian Ministry of Culture and Heritage.
Building
The Napoleonic administration had disbanded many institutions in Venice including some churches, convents and Scuole. The Scuola della Carità, the Convento dei Canonici Lateranensi and the church of Santa Maria della Carità thus became the home of the Accademia. The Scuola della Carità was the oldest of the six Scuole Grandi and the building dates back to 1343, though the scuola was formed in 1260. The Convento dei Canonici Lateranensi was started in 1561 by Andrea Palladio, though it was never fully completed. The facade of Santa Maria della Carità was completed in 1441 by Bartolomeo Bon.
Collection
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, the most famous work of the Gallery, is not displayed for visitors, except on very rare occasions.
The Gallerie dell’Accademia contains masterpieces of Venetian painting up to the 19th century, generally arranged chronologically though some thematic displays are evident.
The collection includes Leonardo da Vinci's drawing of the Vitruvian Man, which is displayed only rarely as the work, being on paper, is fragile and sensitive to light. In 2019, the Louvre in Paris requested the loan of the drawing for its exhibition of works by Leonardo. The request was refused by a cultural heritage group. A court tribunal in Venice, however, decided that the work would suffer no ill effects if shipped with great care and displayed under controlled conditions.[4] The work was, therefore, part of the Louvre's exhibition from 24 October 2019 to 24 February 2020.[5]
^Gallerie dell'Accademia: Storia delle collezioniArchived 2014-10-19 at the Wayback Machine (in Italian). Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio storico, artistico ed etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della città di Venezia e dei comuni della Gronda lagunare, 7 October 2009. Accessed July 2013.