Gallerie dell'Accademia (Accademia Gallery Museum)

The Gallerie dell'Accademia is a museum gallery and it is one of the most important ones in Venice as it houses the largest collection of art from the 14^th to the 18^th century.  The gallery is situated at the near the Ponte dell'Accademia  (Accademia Bridge) in the Dorsoduro  district. More specifically it is housed in the Scuola della Carita at the north bank of the Grand Canal.

The Accademia di Belle Arti di Vezia was founded in 1750, and is an educational institution that provided amongst others a specialization in the restoration of art. After many adventures, and due to the political state in the Italian peninsula, this academy was transferred in 1817 to the location it is in today. In 1879, the Gallerie of the Academy became independent and two institutions were created, the Academy of Fine Arts and the Gallerie. The latter remained in the Scuola della Carita, even though the building still has the inscription Accademia di Belle Arti.

The original collection contained a small number of works of art that had been donated by the academics themselves, and had been transferred from their previous location of the Fonteghetto della Farina. A series of paintings that belonged to the Scuola della Carita and were kept in the building of the old institution, as well as a collection of plaster works owned by the Abbot Farsetti and was bought by the Austrian government in 1805. Important pieces of art were added to the collection in 1838 by Girolamo Contarini who donated about one hundred and eighty pieces. Today the Gallerie dell’Accademia collection is made up of over 800 painting which include works of art by famous artists such as Veneziano, Bellini, Tintoretto, Titian, Canaletto and Veronese.