If you’re in Florence you cannot forget to visit the Galleria dell’Accademia before you leave it, as it’s one of its most important museums. The second most visited museum in Italy after the Uffizi conserves seven Michelangelo masterpieces, one of which is the unique David.
Its story began in 1784, when Granduke Pietro Leopoldo di Lorenza decided to reunite the “Accademia delle Belle Arti” with the “Accademia delle Arti del Disegno”, other institutions and a gallery where students would study, observe and copy the artworks inside it. Important masterpieces were placed in it, like the “The Rape of the Sabine Women” by Giambologna, the “Adoration of the Magi” by Gentile da Fabriano and the “The Madonna and Child with St. Anne” by Masolino and Masaccio. The Gallery was expanded between 1865 and 1971, when Florence became the capital of the Italian Reign, and it changed its name in “Galleria Antica e Moderna” becoming the first museum of contemporary arts in the new State. In 1872, the David sculpture was transferred in the museum from Piazza della Signoria as this place was too dangerous for a masterpiece like this. After the moving of numerous works of contemporary art like those of Botticelli or Beato Angelico, the museum had to change its name into “Galleria dell’Accademia” and it still conserves it nowadays. It is formed by several splendid halls which are the Hall of the Colossus, the Hall of the Prisoners, the Tribune, the “Gipsoteca Bartolini”, the Florentine Gothic room, the museum of musical instruments and the collection of Florentine works made between 1370 and 1430.
Book one of our properties in Florence and visit this wonderful museum! See our suggestions in Florence!
Tickets: full price, half price(for UE citizens between 18 and 25 years old and Italian school teachers) or free (for under-18s, disabled persons, ICOM members and journalists; the first Sunday of each month is free for everybody). I suggest you to buy your ticket in advance on internet or through the call center service paying an additional charge for the booking instead of spending 2 or 3 hours in the queue!
Opening hours: from 8:15am to 6:30 pm, from Tuesday to Sunday
Address: Via Ricasoli, 58-60, 50122 Florence
MICHELANGELO’S DAVID (1504)
The initial project intended to create some sculptures for the buttresses of the Dome of Florence and it was commissioned to Agostino di Duccio in 1463-4, who worked on an enormous block of marble. However, he didn’t finish it and the statue was left in the depository of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo until 1500, when Michelangelo completed it. An art commission then gathered to decide its location: Botticelli suggested to put it next to the Dome, others in the courtyard of Palazzo Vecchio, Leonardo da Vinci proposed to hide it in the Loggia dei Lanzi, while Filippo Lippi and Pier Soderini preferred to put it in front of Palazzo Vecchio. In fact, here it would have acquired a symbolic meaning, as it referred to the civic virtues of the city of Florence. This was its final position, but it soon became the target of some stones thrown by pro-Medici citizens and it also broke its arm during a riot in 1527. The David is in the Tribune of the Galleria dell’Accademia since 1872, while a marble copy has been put in front of Palazzo Vecchio. The sculpture is 434 cm high and its position is similar to the classical “heroic nude” ancient statues. The proportional errors in the head and in the hands disappear when it is observed from a lowered point of view, as its original position had to be high on the buttresses. The work portrays David before he throws the rock against his enemy Goliath, he has wrinkled eyes which focus on his enemy and his pupils have been drilled to confer more intensity. Symbolically he represents the peak of divine creation, he’s physically perfect and he’s also the allegory of the victory of democracy over Medici’s tyranny in Florence.
