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Gallerie dell'Accademia

Gallerie dell'Accademia

Venice, Italy · Website

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This is the place to see Venetian painting where it was made. The Gallerie dell'Accademia gathers the greatest collection of it anywhere, five centuries of Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto and Tiepolo, all within sight of the canals and light that shaped their colour.

The buildings were religious before they held art. The complex grew out of the Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carita, a medieval lay confraternity, and its church and monastery beside the Grand Canal. After Napoleon suppressed such institutions around 1800, the rooms were turned into an academy of fine arts and its gallery.

The pictures reward slow looking. Giorgione's small 'Tempest', from around 1508, sets a woman nursing a child and a soldier in a landscape under a bolt of lightning, and scholars have never agreed what it means. Carpaccio's storytelling cycles unroll across whole walls. The gallery also owns Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing of a man inscribed in a circle and a square, the 'Vitruvian Man', though it is so fragile that it comes out only rarely, kept in the dark between showings.

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Article · 37 min readGallerie dell'Accademia, Venice: twenty works and how each one got here

Collection

315 works
Landscape with St John the BaptistLandscape with St John the BaptistFrancesco Zuccarelli, 1765Landscape with Streams, Monks, and WasherwomenLandscape with Streams, Monks, and WasherwomenMarco Ricci, 1715Landscape with Woodcutters and HorsemenLandscape with Woodcutters and HorsemenMarco RicciLucretiaLucretiaLeandro Bassano, 1610Madonna and ChildMadonna and ChildFrancesco BissoloMadonna and Child BlessingMadonna and Child BlessingJacopo Bellini, 1450Madonna and Child enthroned in paradise with the fathers of the churchMadonna and Child enthroned in paradise with the fathers of the churchGiovanni d'Alemagna, 1446Madonna and Child with Concert of AngelsMadonna and Child with Concert of AngelsGianfrancesco da Tolmezzo, 1500Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome, Benedict, Mary Magdalene and JustinaMadonna and Child with Saints Jerome, Benedict, Mary Magdalene and JustinaBenedetto Rusconi, 1515Madonna and Child with two VotariesMadonna and Child with two VotariesPaolo Veneziano, 1325Madonna della Misericordia with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist and the AnnunciationMadonna della Misericordia with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist and the AnnunciationJacobello del Fiore, 1415Madonna del PartoMadonna del PartoAnonymous, 1490Madonna with Child and Saint John the Baptist, between Saints Omobono and BarbaraMadonna with Child and Saint John the Baptist, between Saints Omobono and BarbaraBonifazio Veronese, 1533Madonna with Child between Saints Jerome and FrancisMadonna with Child between Saints Jerome and FrancisBenedetto Rusconi, 1486Madonna with the Child with Saint Simeon and saint JeromeMadonna with the Child with Saint Simeon and saint JeromeGiovanni Agostino da LodiMagdalene in MeditationMagdalene in MeditationDomenico Fetti, 1618Martyrdom of Saint BartholomewMartyrdom of Saint BartholomewValentin de Boulogne, 1617Martyrdom of the Pilgrims and Funeral of Saint UrsulaMartyrdom of the Pilgrims and Funeral of Saint UrsulaVittore Carpaccio, 1493Miracle of the Relic of the Holy CrossMiracle of the Relic of the Holy CrossBenedetto RusconiMiracle of the Relic of the Holy Cross in Campo San LioMiracle of the Relic of the Holy Cross in Campo San LioGiovanni di Niccolò Mansueti, 1494Nativity and Annunciation to the ShepherdsNativity and Annunciation to the ShepherdsAndrea Previtali, 1517Orpheus and EurydiceOrpheus and EurydiceAlessandro Varotari, 1620Painting and MeritPainting and MeritAlessandro Longhi, 1761Parable of the SowerParable of the SowerAnonymousPenitent MagdalenePenitent MagdaleneCarlo Saraceni, 1614