The Accademia Gallery in Florence

I found this on
a tourism website for Florence (links later on,
not today)


The Accademia Gallery
Via Ricasoli 60
Florence

The most enlightened prince
of the Lorraine family that
ruled over Tuscany for over a century,
the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo,
united in 1784 all the
Florentine drawing schools into one Academy.
He also founded a gallery to
exhibit earlier paintings with
the aim of facilitating the study
of the Academy's pupils.
The seat chosen is the present
location of the Museum,
a building that originally
housed the Hospital of St. Matthew,
enlarged in time through the addition
of several adjoining spaces.








The consistency and composition of the
collections displayed in this museum has
changed over time due to the addition of
works of art removed from suppressed convents,
but also due to loss of works
temporarily given or returned
to other Florentine museums,
in particular to the Uffizi
(Botticelli's Primavera was
displayed here for many years).
Over time the Gallery has
become one of the main museums in town,
also thanks to the acquisition of some extraordinary masterpieces,
such as the Pietà by
Giovanni da Milano (14th century);
the Annunciation by
Lorenzo Monaco (15th century);
the splendid frontal called
Cassone Adimari showing a
sumptuous marriage procession (c. 1450)
and the Madonna of the Sea
attributed to Botticelli (1445-1510).


It is evident that the museum
started to become the favourite
gallery of tourists in 1873, when
Michelangelo's David was exhibited
for the first time on a specially arranged tribune.
For protection purposes, the statue
was in fact removed from Piazza Signoria
where it had represented for over four
centuries the strength and dignity of the
Florentine Republic.
In the early years of the 20th century,
this statue was joined by other extraordinary works of art by the same
artist, such as St. Matthew and the four
Prisoners originally made for
the tomb of Pope Julius II in Rome,
but placed in the grotto of the
Boboli gardens at the end of the 15th century,
and finally by the Pieta di Palestrina
(whose attribution to the master is
still somehow controversial).
A capillary organisation and restoration of
some of the rooms on the upper floor
have allowed the museum to recently
integrate the collection with a series of
paintings from the 14th to the
16th centuries and to open a room
displaying the chalk models of famous
19th century sculptors like
Lorenzo Bartolini and Luigi Pampaloni.