Gallery of the Academy of Arts in Venice. See what "Accademia Gallery (Venice)" is in other dictionaries Academy in Venice

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In this city, art awaits you on every corner, but you'll be missing out if you don't visit the Accademia, home to the world's greatest collection of Venetian paintings.

The Italian art museum Galleria dell'Accademia contains a collection of the Venetian school of Renaissance painting.

Visitors to the gallery can admire paintings by Titian, Veronese, Bellini and other Italian masters of the Renaissance.

Academy history

In 1750, the artist Giovanni Piatezza proposed creating in Venice Academy of Fine Arts. At that time, the academy premises were located not far from Piazza San Marco, on the second floor of the flour market building.

In 1807, by order of the French Emperor Napoleon I, the academy began to be called royal and received new premises and in 1817 the exhibition opened to visitors for the first time.

At first, the collection was formed in order to create an opportunity for academy students to have an adequate understanding of the history of painting. To achieve this, the museum tried to collect works by the greatest Italian masters and representatives of other European schools of painting.

Some paintings were taken from Venice to France under Napoleon. Later we managed to return them back, and the paintings replenished the collection. Others were taken from Venetian churches or received as gifts from private individuals. Some of the most valuable works were originally intended for private individuals.

After the creation of a unified Italy in the second half of the 19th century, the state helped replenish the collection.

At the end of the 19th century, it was decided to give priority to work Venetian artists. Thanks to this, the gallery accumulated the largest collection of the Venetian school of painting. In 1895, the exhibition was first arranged chronologically, and it gave an idea of ​​the history of painting in the city from the 14th to the 18th centuries. Some of the museum's paintings are: one of a kind artifacts of monasteries destroyed during the subjugation of Venice to Napoleon.

Architectural complex of the gallery

The Academy Gallery received its current premises in 1807. Its architectural complex consists of the Church of St. Mary of Mercy, its monastery and school.

In the 15th century, the church and monastery were rebuilt. Additional work to improve the monastery building in the 16th century was carried out by the architect Andrea Palladio. The school premises were restored in the second half of the 18th century according to the design of Giorgio Massari. In 1807, under the Edict of Napoleon, the buildings of the St. Mary of Mercy Church complex became the property of the state. The document transferred them to the Academy of Fine Arts.

The paintings included in the collection, arranged in chronological order, occupy 24 halls. Some of the gallery's most famous paintings can be found in the first five rooms.

Masterpieces in the Academy Gallery

The first room opens with Byzantine works, a style that influenced the city's early artists. Rooms 2-5 display paintings by Carpaccio, Mantegna, Bellini and other masters, reflecting the heyday of the Renaissance in Venice, as well as the Academy’s most famous painting, the mysterious “The Tempest” by Giorgione (circa 1500).

Giorgione “The Tempest”

Rooms 10 and 11 contain masterpieces dating back to the High Renaissance, such as Veronese's The Supper at the House of Levi (1573) and Tintoretto's iconoclastic painting The Miracle of St. Mark" and "Transfer of the Body of St. Mark."

Levia Veronese “Dinner at home”

Leave plenty of time to view the Academy's most interesting exhibits - two storie, or cycles of frescoes (halls 20 and 21). The first, "The Miracle of the Holy Cross" (1494-1510), was painted by various artists for the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista. Each fresco depicts a miracle performed by the relic of the "Holy Cross" in Scuola's possession, although often the miracle itself takes second place to a fascinating episode in the life of the saint.

The same can be said about the second cycle, written by Carpaccio for Scuola di Sant'Orsola, with episodes from the Life of St. Ursula."

So, the Venetian Academy Gallery. Today I have a difficult task: to tell you something that you cannot understand. Because I will talk about Venetian painting, and it is impossible to fully understand the meaning of my words without viewing the original paintings.

Of course, I will provide reproductions. But they are not enough. And the point here is not some mystical creative aura inherent only in the original paintings. Just a painting, especially a large canvas, is a complex product. The artist usually thinks about where the viewer will stand, how he will examine the picture, and how he needs to compensate for geometric distortions with perspective. And the feeling from the inspection is complete. Reproduction on a monitor screen, or even in a book, can only give its shadow.

The photo below is a view of San Marco Square from the sea as I saw it.

And here is the same view painted by Canaletto. This was the area at the beginning of the 18th century.

It’s interesting that when I took the picture, I had no idea about this painting by Canaletto. But the Venetian school, my story and the exhibition at the Academy Gallery do not begin with him.

In the first room there is exhibited what was at the origins of the Venetian school, namely, icons.

These icons are in many ways similar to the Orthodox ones we are familiar with. After all, both the tradition of Orthodox icon painting and the Venetian school have common origins: Byzantium.

For a long time, Venice was under the rule of Byzantium, the first doges were elected with the consent of the Byzantine basileus. And later, having gained independence, Venice continued its borrowings from Byzantium, but in a completely different order: many works of art and jewelry looted from Byzantium occupied by the Ottomans during the Crusades settled in Venice.

And yet, there are differences from Orthodox icons. Venetian ones are much more elaborate and elegant. The abundance of gold and some excess luxury, even in scenes depicting the righteous and martyrs, are a distinctive feature of the Venetian school. Due to its unique location, Venice was a very wealthy city, constantly increasing its wealth through maritime trade. And this wealth seeped into the paintings of the artists there.

In the next room, paintings by the most famous representatives of the Venetian school, who wrote not only on religious, but also on secular topics, were waiting for me: the Bellini family and Vittore Carpaccio, who joined them.

The paintings of these artists dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries are quite famous. Surely you have come across reproductions of them. I have definitely seen portraits of doges and just young men by Giovanni Bellini before. For example, this portrait of a condottiere:

These portraits make a strong impression. They are interesting to look at on their own. It’s even more interesting to read about these people (for example, very interesting stories about condottieres can be found here: http://jaerraeth.livejournal.com/208819.html, section “Ladnsknechts and condottieres”). But, of course, it’s even more interesting in the process of immersion in the cultural environment. Having visited the very city where these people lived, meet them practically in person.

However, I was even more captivated by the plot paintings. So much so that I took the trouble to remember the names of the artists in order to find them in Moscow. These paintings are generally quite large, 3-4 meters in height. Looking at them is like looking through a window behind which there are not just images, but living people.

The perspective effect I mentioned at the beginning of the post plays a role here. Unfortunately, the effect is almost imperceptible in reproduction.

The painting above depicts a scene from the Bible: St. Francis in the desert. Please note how far the painting style is from church canons. Despite the fact that the bulk of the paintings of that time contained religious subjects, the secular influence on them can be traced very clearly. And in rich Venice it was, perhaps, stronger than anywhere in the world at that time.

Knowing this, it is very interesting to look at the numerous Madonnas of Giovanni Bellini. The interesting thing is that they are all different. Each painting had a customer, and who to take as a model was dictated not by dogma, but by wallet. Look at the gallery of maidens of that time by one artist:

The mixture of religious and secular gave rise to another picture that I saw there. Unfortunately, I don't remember the author's name and I couldn't find it when I got home. The painting was called "Holly Supper", and depicted the dinner of Jesus and the apostles. Interestingly, the dinner was depicted as quite festive. As the audio guide told me, the artist depicted members of the customer’s family among the guests in the painting. The funny thing is that this picture almost coincided in content with that described in one of my favorite Monty Python sketches. You can watch it (in English) below. For those readers who do not speak English, I have prepared a version with Russian translation. You can watch it at this link: http://video.yandex.ru/users/wilduser/view/106/#hq, but keep in mind that a fair amount of the humor is lost in translation.

While I was wandering around the museum, lingering for a long time at some of the paintings, listening to the audio guide’s comments, I noticed that more visitors had appeared there. Although not much at such an early hour. Nevertheless, the caretakers’ attention to me was increased. While I was looking at the masterpieces of the Venetian school, the Venetians were looking at me, crimson from Neapolitan sunburns and unshaven. I lingered for a long time in one of the side halls, which caused considerable concern to the caretaker.

What delayed me was a particularly long commentary from the audio guide, and pictures the likes of which I had never seen before (although I had seen them later). It was a polyptych by Vittore Carpaccio "The Legend of Saint Ursula". Or, in modern terms, a comic book. 9 huge canvases occupying an entire hall, with a huge amount of detail, depicted a coherent plot.

You can familiarize yourself with the history of Ursula, and with a meaningful description of the polyptych -
Unfortunately, the reproduction does not show details, for example, that Ursula's father, who receives the matchmakers, is a middle-aged man with slight stubble, stooped and with a tired look. In the first part of the comic, which can be seen above, (“The Arrival of the Matchmakers”), he is depicted twice. This artistic technique was also new to me. On the left, the matchmakers bow before him, and on the right, in the room behind the throne, he discusses their proposals with Ursula. The plot flows smoothly from picture to picture, leaving no breaks and capturing attention. It is also interesting to note the irregular shape of some of the paintings. It is determined by the architecture of the hall where they are located. It looks like they've been hanging there since Carpaccio's time.

By the way, he has his own fan site - http://www.vittorecarpaccio.org/.

I had plenty of impressions from the museum's exhibition. But they didn't end there. Among the series of paintings from a later period, the 18th and 19th centuries, although impressive, but similar to what I had already seen in the museums of Paris, my attention was drawn to a selection of canvases by Canaletto, executed in an ultra-realistic manner. Such fantastic detailing of landscapes allows me to compare his paintings with my photographs. Unfortunately, I did not have reproductions of his paintings, so the angles could only coincide by chance.

I finished visiting the Academy gallery. And no matter how sorry I was to leave her, I was forced to go to the hotel. The last 30 hours of almost no sleep had taken their toll, and I wanted to get there as quickly as possible. But I couldn’t rush too much: I still had about an hour left before my announced check-in time. I can’t sit on the steps of the hotel at this hour, when I have the whole of Venice at my disposal! And I decided to go to the first museum I came across on the way. Moreover, the morning had already passed, tourists began to crowd the streets, and all the exhibitions and shops had already opened their doors to them.

The first exhibition I came across was the building of one of the main Venetian schools of painting - the School of San Rocco (here is its website http://www.scuolagrandesanrocco.it/). Previously, I called the Venetian school a special style of painting. But there were also specific schools that united artists. Something like artels, or rather trade unions.

The most famous artist of San Rocco was Tintoretto. Two spacious halls on two floors, representing the school's exhibition, are densely hung with his paintings. I took the audio guide and started listening to the plots of the paintings. And so I suddenly felt offended that it is strictly forbidden to take photographs there! After all, no one will lose money from my photograph, and the money paid for viewing is not small. Yes, and I want to be able to return to the memories I experienced. So I began to master the art of secretly shooting from the hip. Later, I perfected this art in other museums in Italy. The matter was complicated by the fact that my camera is of impressive size and is conspicuous. In addition, at the moment of shooting, he loudly clicks the mirror. But I was careful and never got caught. Although, the characteristic clicks greatly excited the caretakers and forced them to search intensively for the intruder.

Interestingly, there are many “bitten” paintings built into the gaps between architectural elements.

On the second floor, many paintings decorate the ceiling, so you can take a mirror to look at them (it is assumed that leaning down is easier than lifting your head up).

The school turned out to be small, and I was able to examine it just in the time remaining before the expected check-in. When I got to the hotel, it turned out that the room was already ready (I could hardly stand on my feet anymore). And my suitcase still lies in the corner of the foyer. And now we have to drag him to the 3rd (according to the Russian system - 4) floor along a narrow and steep spiral staircase of an ancient Venetian house with high ceilings.

My room, decorated with burgundy draperies, was slightly larger in area than a coffin. There was a bed... and that was it. If the door opened inward, I would not be able to open it if I placed my suitcase on the floor. But that's not the main thing. The main thing is the bed. Because when I entered the room, I immediately took off my shoes, collapsed on her and fell asleep.

Yes, here's another thing. I collected a number of paintings by the Venetian artists I mentioned. You can view them here: http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/justpreview/album/110899/. Perhaps the gallery will be updated.

Other trips: