Gallerie dell' Accademia

The Accademia is best known now as a museum gallery of pre-1800s art in Venice, Italy. Situated on the south bank of the Grand Canal, it gives its name to one of the three bridges across the canal, the Ponte dell'Accademia, and to the boat landing station for the vaporetto water bus.

L'Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia was founded in 1750 by the Venetian Senate as Venice’s school of painting, sculpture, and architecture. In Vencie, it is uniformly known as the Accademia and mainly as a museum. Installed as its first president was Giambattista Piazzetta, with other advisors Giambattista Pittoni and Gianmaria Morlaiter. The aim was to replicate official institutions which had existed for many years in other major artistic centers including Rome (Accademia di San Luca), Milan, and Bologna (Accademia Clementina). It was one of the first institutions to study art restoration starting in 1777 with Pietro Edwards, and formalized by 1819 as a course. Among teachers at the Academy in past and modern times were Tiepolo, Hayez, Nono, Ettore Tito, Arturo Martini, Alberto Viani, Carlo Scarpa, Afro, Santomaso, and Emilio Vedova.

The Accademia was renamed the Accademia Reale di Belle Arti and moved to its present premises in 1807 by order of the Napoleonic occupying forces. This administration had disbanded many institutions in Venice including some churches, convents and Scuole. The Scuola della Carità, the Convento dei Canonici Lateranensi and the church of Santa Maria della Carità thus became the home of the Accademia. The Scuola della Carità was the oldest of the six Scuole Grande and the building dates back to 1343, though the scuola was formed in 1260. The Convento dei Canonici Lateranensi was started in 1561 by Palladio, though it was never fully completed. The facade of Santa Maria della Carità was completed in 1441 by Bartolomeo Bon.

The Gallerie dell’Accademia contains masterpieces of Venetian painting up to the 18th century, generally arranged chronologically though some thematic displays are evident.