THE ACCADEMIA GALLERY OF FLORENCE: TICKETS AND UNMISSABLE ARTWORKS
After the Uffizi Gallery, the Accademia Gallery is the most visited museum in Florence.
The reason is simple: it houses Michelangelo’s David and, despite many other masterpieces to admire, most visitors go to this museum only to admire this monumental statue.
Il Ratto delle Sabine del Giambologna nel suo modello originale in gesso. Image source: Arterosa.it
WHAT TO SEE AT THE ACCADEMIA GALLERY OF FLORENCE
The Accademia Gallery of Florence was founded in 1784 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany Peter Leopold as a training workshop for the students of the next-door Academy of Fine Arts, so initially it housed works of Florentine art. Later, the collection was enriched with other artworks, among which masterpieces by Michelangelo stand out.
You should visit the whole museum, without skipping an artwork, also because the gallery is smaller than the Uffizi Gallery, for example.
The Hall of the Colossus
After a long restoration, the Accademia Gallery in Florence has reopened the Sala del Colosso to the public.
The Hall of the Colossus is the first large room you come across in the museum’s exhibition itinerary, characterised at its centre by the imposing earthenware sketch of the ‘Rape of the Sabine Women’, a masterpiece by Giambologna, and houses the collection of Florentine paintings from the 15th and early 16th centuries.
To make the viewing of these works more enjoyable, a new room has been created, accessed through the Colossus room, dedicated specifically to the fifteenth century, in which masterpieces such as the so-called Cassone Adimari by Scheggia and the Tebaide by Paolo Uccello are perfectly placed, finally legible in all their wonderful details.
“It was an opportunity to rearrange the layout of the collection, which is kept here, with new lighting and coloured walls, for which we used a special blue that I like to call Accademia blue. The works have been spaced out to make the exhibition more fluid, using lighter, less invasive supports for the captions, which have all been revised and changed,” said Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Accademia Gallery in Florence.
“With Carlo Falciani, an expert on 16th-century Florence, who supported me in this task, we reorganised the paintings, grouping them by schools according to historical and artistic, as well as aesthetic, criteria. I decided to annex the adjoining room, usually used for temporary exhibitions, and display here the section devoted to the 15th century, with also small works, with the very intention of creating a more welcoming setting for these masterpieces.”
READ ALSO: masterpieces of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
But if you have little time to visit the museum, here are 3 works you can’t miss:
1-Michelangelo’s David, which is considered the most beautiful and perfect sculpture ever created and which has been housed inside the Accademia Gallery since 1873. I dedicated a special post to this masterpiece;
2- The original plaster model of The Rape of the Sabines by Giambologna;
3- The Prisoners by Michelangelo, which are unfinished sculptures intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II in Rome.
ACCADEMIA GALLERY TICKETS
The Accademia Gallery is the second most visited museum in Florence, after the Uffizi Gallery.
You’d better book your admission ticket to avoid the line at the ticket office and make the most of your time to visit it.
There are 2 ways to book your ticket:
1 – online at the following web address: http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/uffizi/info_venue_accademia.aspx (the only official channel authorized for selling tickets online)
2 – by calling Firenze Musei at the following phone number: (+39) 055294883.
Tickets price: full € 8; reduced € 4 (for European Union citizens aged between 18 and 25). Free admission for children under 12 years of age and for special free entry reserved to different visitors visit the official website. You’ll find the link at the end of the post. Every first Sunday of the month the museum follows normal opening hours and the entry is free for everyone.
READ ALSO: On Sunday at the museum, how to plan a visit to a museum.
Opening times: from Tuesday to Sunday 8.15 am – 6.50 pm (closed on Mondays, January 1st, May 1st, and December 25th).
WHERE THE ACCADEMIA GALLERY OF FLORENCE IS
The Accademia Gallery is located in the historic centre of Florence, in via Ricasoli, few steps away from the University. If you arrive in Florence by plane, by train or by bus, the point of arrival is always the square of the central Santa Maria Novella railway station. From here you can easily reach the Accademia Gallery on foot in about 15 minutes.
La galleria dei Prigioni e il David di Michelangelo. Image source: http://www.david-michelangelo.org
READ ALSO: What to do in Florence: an itinerary.