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Hotel Pagnini
Via Montebello, 40
Florence Italy
Tel: +39 055 2381238
Fax: +39 055 216685
E-mail: info@hotelpagnini.it

ACCADEMIA GALLERY
Our guests at Hotel Pagnini can enjoy a day admiring examples of paintings and sculptures from the 4th and 15th centuries, by the great Florentine masters, who attributed in giving Florence the fame as an international capital of art, in the Accademia Gallery.
Located in the historical center, it was founded in 1784 by the will of the Grand Duke Leopoldo of Lorena. The gallery was aimed to host a collection of antique and modern paintings and sculptures in order to make it easier for the students of the nearby Academy of Beau Arts to study them.
Part of the building was taken from the antique building that once belonged to the hospital of Saint Matteo, which was adjoined by other contiguous environments of the old convent of San Niccolò in Cafaggio. In 1873, the statue of David, masterpiece by Michelangelo, was transferred here to protect it from the cruelty of time and weather, but later in 1882 it found its resting place in the Tribune which was especially designed by Emilio de' Fabris.
Through time, the Gallery became famous for its collection of the sculptures by Michelangelo, and contains masterpieces of paintings and sculpture by famous and less famous artists who contributed to this famous city of art.
The Gallery is arranged on two floors; the ground floor is certainly the most famous and admired one.
Around 1980, the Galleria was endowed with a gallery of plaster casts located in the 19th Century hall. The pathway opens with the Sala dell'Anticolosso, where the original "Rape of the Sabine's" (1582) by Giambologna can be seen. One can admire some sacred paintings such as Cristo in Pietà by Andrea del Sarto and the Deposition of the Cross by Filippo Lippi. From here, you reach the Galleria dei Prigioni, a corridor that hosts a series of incomplete sculptures by Michelangelo: enormous masses of stone that screamed to become form, through the powerful hand of the great artist. Among these sculptures is the famous Pietà da Palestrina, which arrived at the Galleria in 1940. The artwork results disproportionate in its dimensions, so much that the ascription to Michelangelo is uncertain. The unchallenged David in its tribune, in the background.
The Florence Republic, commissioned the work to Michelangelo in 1501 and the statue was originally placed in piazza della Signoria, in front of Palazzo Vecchio, as a symbol of liberty. The David represents, in fact the young biblical hero in the moment when he gathers his powers to defeat the giant Goliath. Michelangelo, who was just a little more than 25 years of age was paid 400 scudo for this work of art, and used a big marble block already reduced to bad conditions by the efforts of other artists, to draw a great sculpture out of it. From this marble, which by then seemed unusable, came one of the greatest masterpieces of civilization.
In the two lateral wings of the tribune the 16th century, examples Florence art: sacred paintings with bright and sombre colours such as the Disputa sull'Immacolata Concezione (The Dispute of the Immaculate Conception) by Carlo Portelli, are placed.
At the end of the left wing of the tribune of the David, in the Salone dell'Ottocento (19th century Hall), the Gipsoteca dedicated to Lorenzo Bartolini (1777- 1850), is arranged. The gallery of plasters was opened to the public in 1985. Standing out in this gallery are the 300 busts representing the upper middle class, through which the skilful portraitist Bartolini expressed himself. Rich and well illustrated is the mythological theme: Voto dell'Innocenza (the Vote of Innocence), and Venus, to name only two. The pathway, on the ground floor, ends with the Sale Bizantine (Byzantine Halls) where examples of Florence painting of the 14th century are gathered.
In the first of the three halls to catch your attention is L'Albero della Vita (the Tree of Life), illustration of the literary text 'Lignum vitae' by Saint Bonaventure produced by Pacino di Bonaguida. It represents scenes of the life of Jesus and of the stories from Genesis.
In the second hall, one should admire the panels painted by Taddeo Gaddi around 1330, which decorate the reliquary shrine of the Basilica of Santa Croce. At last, the hall dedicated to Andrea, Nardo and Jacopo di Cione, the three Orcagna brothers, whose sacred paintings are the expression of the Florence 14th century.
The four halls of the first floor were arranged and opened to the public 1985. The first of these halls hosts paintings by Giovanni da Milano and by other Florence painters. In the second hall, examples of paintings of the second half of the 14th century among which the bright and sombre colours of Andrea Orcagna are gathered. The third hall hosts a selection of art works by Lorenzo Monaco (1370-1423), a famous painter and miniaturist, and the fourth and last hall gathers examples of Florence late-Gothic paintings through the illustrations of Lorenzo Monaco and of the International Gothic with Gherardo Starnina and others of his contemporaries.