{"id":20896,"date":"2024-04-24T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beculture.it\/?p=20896"},"modified":"2024-04-16T17:23:52","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T15:23:52","slug":"what-to-see-at-the-galleria-dell-accademia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beculture.it\/en\/what-to-see-at-the-galleria-dell-accademia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Galleria dell\u2019Accademia and its masterpieces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Famous worldwide for being the home of the David<\/em> by Michelangelo, an absolute masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture, few know that the Galleria dell\u2019Accademia<\/a> in Florence was originally created to house the paintings of the great Florentine masters.In this article, we will guide you through the works that, along with the sculpture by Buonarroti, you simply must see: here is what to view at the Galleria dell\u2019Accademia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The David by Michelangelo (1501-1504)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If history had followed its expected course, today we would not have the David<\/em> that everyone knows. The work was entrusted to Michelangelo<\/a> in 1501 by the Arte della Lana and the Opera del Duomo of Florence, after two other artists before him – Agostino di Duccio and Rossellino – had begun and then abandoned the task. The problem was the quality of the marble<\/strong>, which was judged too difficult to work with.
Michelangelo, then twenty-six years old, worked for 3 years on the imposing sculpture, completing it in 1504.
A committee composed of the most important artists of the time (including Leonardo da Vinci<\/a>, Sandro Botticelli<\/a>, Filippino Lippi, and il Perugino) decided that the initial location – probably a spur of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore – was not suitable for such a masterpiece and thus a more worthy position was sought. It was therefore determined that the colossal biblical hero should be placed at the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio, as an emblem of the strength and independence of the Florentines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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David<\/em>, Michelangelo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-19th<\/sup> century, the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini (after whom the gallery’s collection of plaster casts is named today) was the first to advance the idea of moving the David<\/em> to protect it from damage caused by atmospheric and human agents. A few years later, the architect Emilio De Fabris<\/strong> was charged with designing and creating the Tribuna dell\u2019 Accademia, which he conceived to give the greatest possible emphasis – in terms of space and natural lighting – to the David<\/em>. It is here that visitors can still today admire it in all its majestic perfection: Michelangelo revolutionizes the image of the young shepherd to make him a young man, unarmed and without the iconic head of Goliath. Nude but not defenseless, as demonstrated by his physical robustness, David<\/em> reveals in his stance, facial expression, and the plasticity of his volumes a new-found pride and confidence. Represented in the moment before the clash, David is not yet a victor but is waiting: everything, from the concentration of his gaze to the tension in his muscles, anticipates the preparation for the battle. And this is the original interpretation offered by Michelangelo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prigioni<\/em> by Michelangelo (1519-1534)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The four unfinished sculptures of the Prigioni<\/em>, created by Michelangelo between 1519 and 1534 for the tomb of Pope Giulio II, were never placed in their intended location. The project for the funeral monument was significantly reduced, so much so that, upon the artist’s death, only six of the originally commissioned sixteen or twenty statues<\/strong> had been completed. Two of these are now at the Louvre in Paris, while four are kept in the Galleria dell\u2019Accademia, to which they were transferred in 1909. Before then, having become the property of Cosimo I de\u2019 Medici, they were placed in the Grotta del Buontalenti<\/em> at Boboli, which today displays concrete copies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Prigioni<\/em> (prisoners, slaves) represent one of the greatest examples of Michelangelo’s non-finito<\/strong>: sculptures in which human forms seem to emerge and come to life from the marble block, yet remain trapped in various stages of incompleteness.
The subjects of Florentine interest are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n