Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

The Gallerie dell’Accademia is a museum gallery devoted to pre-19th-century art in Venice, and this complex brings together a former confraternity building, a church, and a convent. The entrance is through the portal of the former Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carità, giving the museum a doorway with a history older than its galleries. The complex combines Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture, with work associated with Andrea Palladio and Giorgio Massari.

Inside, the collection traces Venetian and regional painting from the 14th through the 18th century, including works by Titian, Tintoretto, Giorgione, Giovanni Bellini, Canaletto, and Veronese. Its most restricted treasure is Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing of the Vitruvian Man: conservation limits its display to a few weeks every six years. The gallery began in 1750 as part of Venice’s art academy; the collections opened to the public in 1817, and the museum became independent in 1879. The academy and gallery continued sharing this building until 2004, so the rooms you enter carry both the history of teaching art and the history of collecting it.