Hi and welcome to this next video in the Florence Art Tour. The focus here is the
Accademia -- so thinking about strategies for visiting this particular gallery: what to see when you
come and what are some of the highlights. Of course, the main attraction here is the David,
but what else can you see at this particular gallery to make sure that you're getting your
money's worth and that you're really taking advantage of your time in this particular
in this particular gallery. So jumping into different ways to visit: you can use this
standby line. I don't recommend this. This means you really have to wait and allow those who have
reservations to go in front of you. I've never tried the standby line at Accademia, but I have
at the Uffizi, and it can take a very, very long time, so I definitely recommend option number
two which would be to make a reservation on the website yourself. Be sure to pick a time where
you know you'll be able to go because it can be very challenging to change your reservation, so
don't expect to book a reservation and then try to change it later. Try to stick with it.
And then another option, option number three, would just be to work with your hotel, your concierge in
terms of booking a reservation. You can also try to book a tour with a licensed tour guide in Florence.
So be sure you're working with a licensed tour guide. This is very important because the sites are
in so much demand at -- in Florence. You can also go to the ticket ticket office at Orsanmichele.
Very recently when i was in Florence, I didn't know a particular day when I was going to go to
the Accademia because I had some people coming into town, I didn't know what day would be best for them,
and so I just waited until they arrived, I confirmed they actually did want to go to
the Accademia, we picked a morning to go, and then I just stopped by that ticket office at
Orsanmichele, where you often will see tour guides in line also waiting for tickets. And usually
you can kind of pick your time and it's generally very much available. If you happen to be part of a
study abroad group or part of a group traveling to Florence, most likely they will plan a trip
for you to go to the Accademia, but you might want to confirm with them that that's happening. The
Accademia is an easy walk just north of the Duomo. So if you're at the Duomo, you would just head
up to the Accademia again kind of like just before the Ospedale degli Innocenti and um Santissima Annunziata.
There's a large there's a large piazza there. So just be sure to arrive maybe five minutes
before your reservation window, check in with the Accademia staff and just make sure that your
time window hasn't already been admitted or your time group hasn't already been admitted
to make sure that you haven't missed your time slot. Then you will proceed through the entrance
and through security. My favorite time to go is generally in the morning, although in the summer
they do tend to be open a bit later and so it can be fun to go in the evening. If you do go right
when it opens, you can head straight to the David and just enjoy kind of this moment of calm in the
main gallery with this massive giant sculpture of the David as well as his prisoner sculptures
and then the sculpture of Saint Matthew and the Pietà -- kind of this wonderful temple-like structure.
So that's definitely a highlight, but if you move too quickly, you are going to miss these
two early spaces, which is the first gallery and then the museum of musical instruments.
The first gallery features the plaster model for Giambologna's Rape or Abduction of the Sabine Women.
Here you'll be able to consider this really twisting, serpentine posture that is associated
with mannerism and the late renaissance -- this period which demanded that the viewer
really circle around a sculpture and appreciate these works of art from all different directions.
You will see that it's a large plaster model and this was really in preparation for that final
marble work that you see in the Loggia dei Lanzi -- in addition to this you'll encounter works by other
Florentine masters paintings in this particular gallery, so works by Ghirlandaio, Benozzo
Gozzoli, Sandro Botticelli, and Filippino Lippi -- so some of the big greats from the early [Renaissance] period of
Florence. You can also wander down a hallway and head down to the Museum of Musical Instruments.
You'll think you've entered into some kind of like off-limits space because there's so few people
there. It's very quiet and calm but just keep going down this little hallway, and you will reach the
correct space. You'll see these -- this wonderful collection of cellos and violins, harpsichords and
other musical instruments from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, and it's a really great reminder
that in Florence and throughout Italy, there weren't just great contributions to the [visual] arts but
also contributions to music. And there are also some kind of tech devices that will allow you to listen
to some of the music. So as you return back to the Sabine gallery -- where they have that plaster model --
you'll then head into the main gallery featuring the David. Please be sure to take your time and
appreciate those unfinished "Prisoners" that were created to be part of a very large tomb complex
for Pope Julius II, for whom Michelangelo worked in the city of Rome, but these works eventually came
back to Florence. Michelangelo was enticed to go to Rome with this promise of a very very large
tomb construction that would involve a huge number of sculptures that he would be able to do, but once
he got to Rome he was actually forced to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo much
preferred sculpting to painting, so he was very upset that he had to do this and spend four years
working on the ceiling. This was really torture for him, and in addition Julius's planned tomb really
never came to fruition. A much smaller version that does feature Michelangelo's Moses is now in San
Pietro Vincoli in Pome, but many of the smaller sculptures are now in the Accademia, where you can
see these kind of figures kind of trying to free themselves from the block. And then you'll also
see the "Slaves" which are now in the [Musee du] Louvre in Paris. Visitors will also find the Saint Matthew,
which was intended to be part of the commission of sculpture -- of a sculpted apostles that was going to
be displayed in the Florentine Duomo, but like many of Michelangelo's projects, it remained unfinished.
And here you can really see also a Pietà, which has a bit of that unfinished quality as well.
Many visitors really love examining these kind of unfinished works and really enjoy seeing
his working methods, so if you're interested in the Pietàs especially, you'll also see one at the
Duomo museum and at St Peter's Basilica in Rome -- at the -- in the Vatican.
And many visitors just like this idea of Michelangelo really freeing these figures
from the block -- seeing that working method, the way Michelangelo would work from front to back, rather
than kind of working all around. And many scholars have written about Michelangelo's working methods
and the question of what is finished and unfinished -- this idea of finito/nonfinito --
and kind of what is he trying to display through these chisel marks. Michelangelo is is very well
known for for kind of considering different working methods when -- when examining marble.
Alright -- so now with the big one going on to the David. So you have this 17-foot tall
sculpture that's carved from an extremely tall and very thin piece of marble that other artists had
attempted to work with and Michelangelo proved his ability by actually being able to complete this
masterpiece -- this giant sculpture. Originally, the large sculpture was intended to be installed on a
buttress of the cathedral or the Duomo, but once the Florentines realized how impressive it was --
even Leonardo da Vinci thought it was impressive who was always commenting --
or competing with Michelangelo and insulting Michelangelo -- even Leonardo acknowledged that it
was really impressive, so the David was then installed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio,
which was that governmental building. Later it became more of a palace for the grand duchy
and also had governmental functions. So the marble sculpture was outside the Palazzo Vecchio;
it was exposed to the elements for hundreds of years until eventually it was installed in this
current Neoclassical space, which was designed much as a temple much like a temple for the masterpiece.
Michelangelo was not the first to sculpt the David -- artists like Donatello and Verrocchio
created 15th-century versions, but Michelangelo makes some really important changes, so his
David appears older and more mature. He seems to really fully inhabit this giant piece of marble.
Michelangelo selected the moment BEFORE David has his battle with Goliath, so here we see David not
standing victorious over the head of Goliath, but with this expression of focus and some anxiety
as this young shepherd who is representing the Israelites is taking on this giant Philistine, as
was recounted in the Old Testament. Michelangelo's David presents a new mastery of the male
form, which Michelangelo found to be especially beautiful and perfect. David sinks into one leg
in what's known as a contrapposto pose. This more naturalistic shifting of weight was first mastered
by the ancient Greeks and later by the Romans, but Michelangelo shows his mastery during this high
renaissance period around 1501 at this time of rebirth in interest of classical antiquity. And the
subject of the David was of particular interest to the Florentines because the florentines really
liked the idea that David was small but very mighty -- so this idea that like the city of Florence
the city or that David was pretty small and so Florence was a relatively small city, but it was
mighty. It was economically strong, and it needed to face down very large and politically powerful
cities and sovereigns that had tried to overtake it in the past. So this sculpture of the David is
truly breathtaking. You may have seen copies and trinkets, imitations of the sculpture all
over Florence and elsewhere. You may have seen the kind of funny aprons, but nothing quite prepares
you for seeing the real thing. I like to sit on a bench behind the sculpture and just kind of
enjoy looking at it from different directions. You can see the slingshot behind him. There's
some nice air conditioning vents -- I think -- on the floor. It's fun to watch people's reactions --
the kind of excitement and then walk around and see the different angles of the sculpture.
You can also really get a sense of how slender the marble is and how Michelangelo had to contend
with carving this very challenging piece of marble. This challenging piece of stone.
So what to do next so as you progress to the exit? You say goodbye to David. You can continue to enjoy
the paintings in the Accademia collection. There are two small galleries off to the
left as you head towards the room of the plaster sculptures. So if you pop into those two galleries
you'll see some of the early renaissance painting -- kind of proto-renaissance painting --
and for me it's very interesting because I study like the whole renaissance [laughing], but it really helps you
to track that development of Florentine painting as you move through these different cultural sites.
It can be interesting to see that dramatic stylistic change from about 1350 to 1550,
seeing that more kind of flat style of painting, move to a much more naturalistic style. Then as you
move to the end, you enter the room of the plaster sculptures. These were used by the art academy for
artistic training. This reminds us that we are near the Florentine Academy, one of the most important
European artistic training centers -- especially due to this access to
great artistic traditions throughout Florence. So there's this long tradition of artists coming to
Florence to train, and it was it was challenging to get into the art academy. So lastly, you can
head to the exit. There's, of course, a gift shop. There are restrooms that can be found downstairs,
and then also there's upstairs galleries that have been recently -- relatively recently -- redone, so
the stair is pretty easy to miss or the stairway is pretty easy to miss, so if you can't find it
just ask a staff member and they will very happily show you the way. This features additional examples
of paintings organized by school and time period and again provides you further context for other
paintings that you might see or have seen at the Uffizi and other paintings galleries in Florence.
So what to do? Where to stay in this area? There's lots of nice little supermarkets around this area,
so you can enjoy just grabbing a quick bite to eat. Maybe take it back to your hotel room.
Go with an inexpensive option. So that's something that I like to do just kind of
shop some of these grocery stores. Remember to bring it back to your room or your
apartment. Don't try to eat everything while you're walking around or sitting on the steps
of cultural sites because that can get you in trouble. If you prefer to try a restaurant,
I really like Ristorante Skipper or Skipper, which is just a one-minute walk from the David. You can
enjoy a change from Tuscan food and eat from the Sicilian menus with Sicilian-style food.
You've got great seafood and these delicious cannolis, so enjoy those if that's something you're
interested in. And then for a place to stay that's really close to the Accademia. I've
stayed in Residence Hilda, which is again super close -- just a few minutes away -- and it provides
apartment style rooms. It's a little bit on the expensive side, but it allows you to do some of
your own cooking, so you can save money that way. You do have your own kitchenette and at
least some of the rooms have separated living and sleeping spaces. And again close to the Accademia,
but also close to the Duomo and a relatively easy walk from the train station as well --
or an easy kind of taxi ride or bus ride. Alright, well, I hope that provided a good overview
of visiting the Accademia. And I hope you enjoy your visit or share your ideas below. Thank you!