For some reason I must have skipped the Gallerie dell’Accademia when I first visited Venice. Perhaps it was closed, because I did visit the nearby Peggy Guggenheim Collection or perhaps I was short of time, which is more likely. This time around I had to skip the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Ca’ Pesaro.
In recent years I’ve become more interested in art from the 16th and 17th century. That might be another reason why I didn’t visit the Gallerie dell’Accademia on my first trip to Venice. Perhaps it simply wasn’t high on my list.
I’m glad this time around I'd included Venice’s Accademia Gallery in my schedule. It has an outstanding collection of paintings from the golden age of the Venetian Renaissance by Tintoretto, Veronese and Titian, as well as some fabulous paintings by Tiepolo.
Unfortunately, due to ongoing restoration work, the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings was temporarily closed when I was there. So I guess I have to go back one day to see Leonardo da Vinci's drawings. I did buy the postcards, of course.
I recently read Hans Belting’s classic study Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art (1990) so I was delighted to see a large number of icons and altar pieces from the Middle Ages. As Belting argues, it is impossible for us to not see these icons as works of art. However, in Byzantine and medieval European culture these icons were seen as an instantiation of the holy spirit, not as a mere representation let alone a product of the imagination. It wasn’t until the early 16th century that the modern idea of the artist and the work of art emerged.
This panel by Jacobello del Fiore caught my eye, because the people surrounding the Madonna are so small that she appears to shelter them underneath her gown.
These are two panels of the "Polyptych of the Apocalypse" (1390) by Jacobello Alberegno. They are part of a much larger complex, five of which are in the collection of Venice’s Accademia Gallery. They depict scenes from the Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse.
To my surprise Venice’s Accademia Gallery holds three paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, including the amazing "The Hermit Saints Triptych" (1493). The central panel in particular is a masterpiece. It shows Saint Jerome contemplating the cross in what may once have been a small chapel, as shown by the remaining fragments of flooring and a beautifully decorated altar, where the figures of Judith and Holofernes can also be seen. As in all paintings by Hieronymus Bosch there is a lot going on and I wish I could study it in more detail. I bought a wonderful book, Inside the Artwork. Sixty Masterpieces As You Have Never Seen Them Before, which has close-ups of a number (sixty to be precise) paintings in the collection of the Gallerie dell'Accademia, but it includes another painting by Bosch.
One of the many treasures of Venice’s Accademia Gallery is a cycle of nine paintings by Vittore Carpaccio, which tell the legend of Saint Ursula. When I was there only "The Dream of Ursula" (1497-98) was on display. It shows Ursula asleep in her bed with an angel standing in the door opening. What I love about these paintings is that they are full of symbols. Thus, for example, Ursula's forthcoming martyrdom is symbolized by the palm leaf, which the angel holds in his hand. The plants on the window sill, a myrtle and a carnation, symbolize faithfulness in marriage. The crown at the foot of the bed, the prayer book, the hourglass, and the statues of Venus Pudica and Hercules above the two doors also allude to the couple's virtues.
Another highlight is the stunning "The Feast in the House of Levi" (1573) by Paolo Veronese. When I was there it was presented together with "Convito di Vetro", a monumental installation of over 100 glass designs. It worked particularly well.
This "Portrait of a Gentleman in his Study" (1527) by Lorenzo Lotto is another painting rich in symbolism. At least, I assume the young man didn't actually have a lizard walking around his study. Then again, you never know. In antiquity it was a symbol of death and rebirth. The lute and the horn in the background and the rose petals, the ring, the letters, and the woman’s shawl in the foreground are all allusions. The book itself could be a family anthology or an accounts ledger.
Venice's Accademia Gallery holds several paintings by Tiepolo, one even more magnificent than the other. Believe it or not, the above "The Transport of the Holy House of Loreto" (1742) was actually a sketch for a fresco for the Santa Maria di Nazareth, which was destroyed in 1915 when it was hit by an Austrian bomb intended for Venice's train station. Fragments of the ceiling are on display at the museum.
The Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia holds many more treasures, including several paintings by Titian and a spectacular ceiling painted by Giorgio Vasari for the Palazzo Corner Spinelli in Venice. The panels that make up the ceiling were dispersed since the late Eighteenth century, but after years of research they were finally reassembled. August 2024 they were unveiled to the public.