Dec 22, 2009

The Oxford Dictionary of Art | Accademia

Accademia (Gallerie dell'Accademia), Venice.
The major picture gallery of Venice. It takes its name from the city's Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1756, but it did not open as a picture gallery until 1809, as part of the administrative reforms carried out by Napoleon when Italy was under his rule. It is housed in a complex of Gothic and Renaissance buildings on the Grand Canal—the church, monastery, and Scuola of S. Maria della Carità. The architect Giovanni Antonio Selva supervised the conversion. Part of the complex is still used for the teaching activities of the Academy (which was administratively separated from the gallery in 1878), but most of it is devoted to exhibition space. Selva kept much of the character of the old buildings, and Titian's huge Presentation of the Virgin (1534–8) remains on the wall for which it was produced, in what was then the Scuola's committee room. The Accademia contains the most comprehensive collection of Venetian painting in the world (although a few major names, such as Canaletto, are modestly represented); there are few works from other schools.