The Covid Diaries 36, Venice Edition: Gallerie dell’Accademia

Review of the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. In which I enjoy the size and quiet calm of this significant museum

Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice: Small but Perfectly Formed

I don’t know why, but I was expecting something different from the Gallerie dell’Accademia when I visited Venice. Bigger. Grander. More fatiguing. So I was pleasantly surprised at its scale, and saw everything comfortable in a couple of hours. With some contemplation breaks of course to sit in some of the quieter rooms and study interesting works. The Gallerie is (are?) a museum of pre-19th Century art. It’s in a former Scuola, which the more diligent readers among you have recently learned about. As the name suggests, at its foundation it was the art collection of the Venetian Academy of Fine Arts (Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia). It became an independent museum quite early on (in 1879); since 2004 it has been the sole occupant of the Scuola della Carità building.

In terms of collections, as mentioned it’s mostly pre-19th Century art, but with a real focus on Venetian art’s heyday. Canaletto, Bellini, Bordone, Mantegna, Giorgione, Tintoretto and Titian feature among other weighty names. It’s arranged more or less chronologically, but because of some renovation work currently underway plus Covid restrictions, the path through the galleries is currently a series of 2-3 loops; first through the main galleries and back again which includes the early stuff and some Renaissance. Then it’s through another loop with the rest of the Renaissance, then a downstairs loop with the other bits.

You and I both know that I hate enforced one way museum visits; the best part about this is that you can pick and choose according to your interests. I had a quick look at most things but lingered on the early Renaissance as I found it most interesting. There was also a great room of works by Heironymous Bosch which were a bit conspicuous in their non-Italian-ness.

Taking their Covid Measures Seriously

The Accademia take their Covid responsibilities very seriously. While I was there I saw someone accidentally come up the down staircase from the ticket booth; a guard promptly sent them back down to come up the correct way. When you’re not being actively monitored the system is one of maximum capacities per room. Some visitors adhere to this better than others. But there were very comfortable numbers of people throughout – probably more reflective of current tourist numbers than active restrictions on ticket sales. I hadn’t booked in advance but just wandered in to buy a ticket on the day.

A Scuola Grande Masquerading as a Gallery

I particularly enjoyed seeing signs of the original Scuola, and seeing site-specific works from sites I either knew already or planned to visit on my Venetian itinerary. In terms of the former, a handful of rooms still very much have their Scuola splendour on display. Despite being confraternities rather than outright religious organisations, Scuole seemed to mostly be linked to a particular saint or similar. This Scuola was once linked to St Mary of Charity; one frescoed room and a couple of additional religious ceilings still attest to this connection.

In fact thinking about it, part of the Accademia must now be housed in what was once the Scuola’s church. There is one large room which is very ecclesiastical in layout, with lots of stained glass. So looking at the fabric of the building underneath the curated displays and thinking about it in relation to other Scuole I visited was an interesting activity.

Gallerie dell’Accademia: Local Art in a Local Setting

In terms of the latter, one thing that I noticed about the Accademia is that the art was particularly local. Maybe this is the case elsewhere in Italy and I just haven’t really noticed? But where I was expecting something more comprehensive like the Pinacoteca di Brera or the Uffizi, the Accademia collection has a lot of art depicting Venice or painted by artists from or working in Venice. The works originally from the Scuola Grande di San Marco also in Venice illustrate this nicely.

They are all now housed in a room in the Accademia. They immediately stand out as site-specific works (not least because a couple of them are designed to fit around doorframes). The series tells the story of St Mark and the miracles he worked, painted by Tintoretto, Bordone and others. Their scale and cohesiveness make them quite striking. I enjoyed the process of seeing the works up close on museum walls one day, and seeing replicas in situ the following day when I visited the Scuola. Not all of them are in the Accademia – some are also in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, but it was still an enjoyable example of how local the museum feels.

Final Thoughts

So overall it’s a great time to visit the Gallerie dell’Accademia if you are able to travel to Venice. It’s so pleasant walking off a water bus at the Accademia stop, strolling over to the museum with no queue to hold you up, and walking through the galleries at leisure. You can safely skip the downstairs unless you really admire average works of the late 18th-early 19th Centuries. The two upstairs loops, however, are definitely worth the time.

On its own merits: 3.5 to 4/5
Implementing Covid rules: 4/5