Florence, Accademia Gallery breaks visitor record: more than 2 million by 2023

Excellent results in 2023 for the Accademia Gallery in Florence. The Florentine museum, meanwhile, has set a record number of visitors: 2,013,974, a total never reached before with the public, the institute reports, no longer crowding only in front of Michelangelo’s David, which has always been the site’s pole of attraction, but spreading out to every room, or to see “museums within the museum” such as the Gipsoteca or the Department of Musical Instruments. The number of visitors in 2023 represents a 42 percent increase over visitors in 2015, when there were 1,415,409. And as early as last October the number of 1,719,640 was reached, which was had in the record year that was 2018. These are, moreover, the numbers recorded from the tickets taken off, without taking into account all the public who participated in the various events organized by the Museum, during Mondays, days of closure.

The museum distinguished itself through various activities, starting with exhibitions. The year 2023 opened with the exhibition I Bronzi di Riace un percorso per immagini (December 20, 2022-April 2, 2023) photographs by Luigi Spina, curated by Carmelo Malacrino, director of the MArRC, and created precisely in collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum Reggio Calabria for the 50th year since the discovery of these incredible statues from the golden century ofgolden age of Greek art, a tribute to the power and iconographic beauty of the Bronzes that were exhibited for the first time since their discovery in 1980 in Florence’s Archaeological Museum. On Nov. 27, the first monographic exhibition in Europe dedicated to Pier Francesco Foschi (1502-1567) Florentine painter, curated by Cecilie Hollberg, Elvira Altiero, Nelda Damiano and Simone Giordani, opened. With this exhibition, which brings together, divided into five sections, more than 40 autograph works from various institutions and collections, both public and private, from Italy and abroad, it has been possible to reconstruct his prolific activity, to better understand his artistic personality, his role in the context of 16th-century Florentine painting, and his relations with other masters of the time such as Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and Bronzino. All these aspects find further insights in the critical essays contained in the catalog raisonné with the complete registry of all the painter’s works, published by Silvana Editoriale. An exhibition that is pleasing the public so much that guided tours, conducted by specially trained museum staff, have sold out and have been extended until March 8, 2024.

The Gallery has also been active on the acquisitions front. New works have joined the museum’s collections through two acquisitions. The first, a marble bust depicting Napoleon Bonaparte, signed by Lorenzo Bartolini, now on display in the Gipsoteca. A very different portrait from other major official busts of the emperor, Napoleon is here depicted with melancholy, brooding features, stripped of all heroic attributes. The second, the Corsi Crucifix, is a painting from the first quarter of the 14th century by a Florentine painter who takes his name from this very panel, the Master of the Corsi Crucifix, placed in the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century rooms. The tempera-painted panel, in a particularly dramatic style, has been instrumental in identifying the master who painted it, as evidenced by studies first by Richard Offner in 1931 and later by Miklós Boskovits in the 1980s.

As for scientific research, the Accademia Gallery, in addition to its existing projects with various institutions, has created new ones, always aimed at the study and scientific research of their respective artistic heritages. David’s sculptures in Florence between History and Symbol is a video production, created during Covid from an idea by Cecilie Hollberg, completed in 2023 and presented in March at Teatro Niccolini. A choral operation that brought together not only the Accademia Gallery and the Bargello Museums, but also the Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and the Cultural Department of the City of Florence, to tell the story of the biblical hero, depicted in sculptures by Andrea Pisano, Donatello, Verrocchio and Michelangelo. With the Istituto degli Innocenti, the Galleria dell’Accademia signed a three-year collaboration agreement to give rise to various shared initiatives: concerts, lectures and guided tours to be held at both places. In 2023, the 500th anniversary of the death of Perugino (1448-1523) was celebrated, and the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence (which preserves the Vallombrosa Altarpiece, dated 1500, by this artist) collaborated with the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria on the celebrations. It lent, for the major exhibition The Best Master of Italy. Perugino in his time, a panel depicting the Visitation with St. Anne, St. John and St. Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata, now referred to Domenico del Ghirlandaio, a work that was attributed to a young Perugino by Federico Zeri. It later hosted a study day with talks by Marco Pierini, director of the National Gallery of Umbria, and by Professor Francesco Salvestrini, of the University of Florence. It also participated in the project to recompose the Triptych of Santa Chiara, at the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena, thanks to the fruitful relationship established between the two directorates. The central part, preserved at the Galleria dell’Accademia, depicting the Madonna Enthroned, attributed to Guido da Siena, was proposed by Director Hollberg to the Pinacoteca, for long-term storage, to be reunited, according to the intuition of art historian Miklós Boskovits, with the two side doors with stories of saints, already exhibited here and referred to Dietisalvi di Speme. Again, it has financed, with the IMT Alti Studi Lucca School, a doctoral fellowship dedicated to training in museology: Ester Tronconi, who won the first fellowship, followed by the museum’s scientific staff, will contribute to the editing and publication of the fourth volume of the Accademia Gallery’s scientific catalogs, dedicated to fifteenth-century painting.

As for restorations, also in 2023 major interventions were carried out. These include the restoration of Nardo di Cione’s Christ Blessing , which is included in the exhibition itinerary, and the Corsi Crucifix, a very recent acquisition, underwent a necessary anoxia treatment. The analysis of the painting made it possible to document the process of its execution, testifying to the extraordinary articulation and creative vitality of the Florentine landscape of the early 14th century. On the occasion of the exhibition on Pier Francesco Foschi, the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence financed the restorations of some of the painter’s paintings in the Florentine and Tuscan territories, such as: the Transfiguration, commissioned for the Basilica of Santo Spirito in Florence in 1545-1550; The Sacrifice of Isaac, derived from Andrea del Sarto’s model, preserved in the collection of Villa di Poggio Imperiale in Florence. Two panels with St. Roch and St. Sebastian in the Propositura dei SS. Antonio e Jacopo in Fivizzano (Massa-Carrara), along with the two predellas with The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian and St. Roch Rescued by a Dog, from the Longhi Foundation, have also been restored thanks to the support of antiquarian Fabrizio Moretti. All works in the museum are constantly monitored as are all the specimens in the Department of Musical Instruments, particularly in 2023, Kerstin Schwarz, an expert restorer in this area, was taken care of Domenico Del Mela’s upright piano from 1739, the earliest extant specimen, and other instruments such as the Oval Spinet and ebony harpsichord, both by Bartolomeo Cristofori, and the Thomas Culliford harpsichord (Longman & Broderip) from 1785. Not to be forgotten, then, is a very delicate operation that is constantly repeated every two months or so: the dusting of Michelangelo’s David, which has just celebrated 150 years since he was transported on rails to this site in August 1873, a temple built especially for him. Dusting is an agreed-upon intervention, evaluated and updated on the basis of previous experience, so as to prevent the accumulation of deposits and dust from stripping the marble of its brightness by greying its surface.

And speaking of construction sites, to celebrate the David and its 150th anniversary since its arrival in the Gallery, a thorough cleaning of the skylight and its securing was carried out. The effect of natural light, which filters excellently, together with the new LED lights, creates an evocative atmosphere in the Tribune that highlights, depending on the time of day, all the details sculpted by Michelangelo. A new set-up also for the room of the collection of keyboard musical instruments: it now has new lighting with LED spotlights and a platform has been created to improve the display of these excellences, and in the brief closure of the room, checks were carried out in a few days on the condition of the original instruments and the work carried out in previous restorations, along with general dusting and more thorough cleaning of the paintings on canvas, placed here as well. Work sites have also affected the museum’s entrance hall and the exterior, where conservative restoration of the main facade of the building on Via Ricasoli is currently underway, not only of the Accademia Gallery but also of adjacent institutions such as the Academy of Fine Arts and the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory, to enhance the entire architectural complex. New doors and access will be built within the next few weeks.

On the digital museum front, the total digitization of all works in the Accademia Gallery has been completed. All the events organized inside the Gallery have been documented and can be seen on Accademia On Line, the digital channel that is always being enriched with new video content, with formats designed for different types of users, from the youngest to the oldest, in Italian and English, such as, for example, DISCOVER the GALLERY where the works are narrated in short pills by art historians, music experts, and directors of institutions from the world of international culture. Among the very latest published: The Pentecost by Andrea di Cione known as l’Orcagna and the gold and silver leaf technique narrated by Muriel Vervat, the restorer who worked on the pictorial surface of this painting, and Bartolomeo Cristofori’s The Oval Spinet, whose secrets are revealed to us by Kerstin Schwarz. Together with the SAGAS Department of the University of Florence, the Accademia Gallery involved students from the Museum Communication and Education course, who developed a very fresh social campaign, In punta di pennello, to popularize and enhance the museum’s paintings. Following the outcry in Florida for showing the David in an Art History class, the Gallery launched the hashtag #davidagainststignorance, in support of Dean Hope Carrasquilla, but especially against the cultural ignorance that wants to classify the beauty of Renaissance sculpture as pornographic. To facilitate a visit to the Pier Francesco Foschi exhibition, an App has been created that provides information about the itinerary, the author and individual works. A Virtual Tour and Game, designed for younger children, is also online.

Finally, as far as publications are concerned, several titles have been produced by the Gallery such as La disputa sull’Immacolata Concezione nella Toscana del Cinquecento (Centro Di), edited by Cecilie Hollberg, dedicated to the depiction of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, starting in the Middle Ages, and the bitter theological debate that ensued between Franciscans and the Benedictine Order and, on the other hand, the Dominicans. The volume was presented on May 18 in the Cenacolo di Santa Croce, one of the most significant Franciscan places in Florence, an initiative resulting from the collaboration between the very Opera di Santa Croce and the Galleria dell’Accademia. In October, at a meeting in the Gallery, Francesco Caglioti, art historian and critic, professor of medieval art history at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, detailed the second volume on the exhibition Michelangelo: the bronze effigy of Daniele da Volterra, edited by Cecilie Hollberg, (Edizioni Mandragora). A publication that brings together the proceedings of the study day held, at the Gallery, on Feb. 15, 2022, along with the surprising results that emerged from the analyses, both classical and innovative, on the bronze portraits, and which, with the contribution of international experts, led to untangling the complex case, after nearly 500 years, of the identification of the three original busts. In December, the first Repertory of the Paintings of the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze, published by Mandragora, came out, finally collecting in a single book all the paintings of the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze, ranging from the 13th century to the 2000s. An in-depth, agile tool aimed at all types of readers. Contributors to the volume, introduced by an extensive essay by Cecilie Hollberg: Elvira Altiero, Federica Baldini, Andrea Di Lorenzo and Maria Antonia Rinaldi. Masterfully presented in the Gallery by Professor Carlo Sisi, president of the Florence Academy of Fine Arts.

“I have achieved my goal: to make the Accademia Gallery of Florence accessible for everyone, to improve the quality of the exhibition itinerary,” says director Cecilie Hollberg. “The 2023 balance sheet is very positive, in so many ways. We have been working with all the museum staff to finalize the very last modernization works, we have organized many events, concerts, book presentations, also in other places in the city, special tours, involving different audiences. There have been many collaborations with prestigious Italian and international institutions, focusing on scientific research projects. We enriched the collections with new acquisitions, restored works, and produced new publications. We closed on a high note with the opening of the first monographic exhibition in Europe on Pier Francesco Foschi, a forgotten artist whom we helped to enhance and rediscover.”

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The 2024 projects

Several activities are already planned for this year. On the occasion of the exhibition Pier Francesco Foschi (1502-1567) Florentine painter, on Monday, March 4, there will be a day of study, the first dedicated to this artist, which will help focus on his path from his youthful years to his maturity. Thanks to the collaboration with the Istituto degli Innocenti, again in connection with the exhibition, educational workshops for children will be organized at their premises.

The exhibition, as already indicated, has made it possible to carry out a series of restorations on Foschi’s works. In the Basilica of Santo Spirito, the recently completed restoration of the altarpiece depicting the Transfiguration, now located in the Capponi d’Altopascio chapel on the right wall of the right transept, will be presented. The intervention, which was held on site given the size of the work, which is difficult to transport, involved not only the painting but also the splendid gold-leaf frame.

For the celebrations of the eighth centenary of the death of St. Francis, the Galleria dell’Accademia together with the Opera di Santa Croce is carrying out a new project that will be illustrated in the coming months with art historian, Andrea Di Lorenzo. A project that will allow the virtual reconstruction of the sacristy closet of Santa Croce, originally composed of 28 panel paintings by Taddeo Gaddi, depicting the Stories of St. Francis, many of which are preserved right at the Gallery.

Networking with other important Gipsoteche in Europe and Italy is another of the goals initiated by Cecilie Hollberg: a collaboration between the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze, the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the metropolitan city of Florence and the provinces of Pistoia and Prato, and the Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana - SUPSI, will kick off in 2024 for a scientific research project on Lorenzo Bartolini’s plaster models with in-depth investigations, through scans, methods and the latest generation of technologies, never before carried out. This research will provide a better understanding of the artist’s creative process and technique, as well as the state of conservation of these delicate works, with direct observation of the surface of the models. A type of analysis that has also been applied to the plaster casts of the Vincenzo Vela Museum Gypsoteca in Ligornetto, Switzerland.

Together with the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, however, another scientific investigation project will be launched that will also involve plaster models, specifically the one depicting Lord Byron, preserved in the Gallery’s Gypsoteca, which will be carefully analyzed using photogrammetry and the 3D scanning technique.

New look for the bookshop in 2024, which will be rearranged and modernized in keeping with the current exhibition itinerary. New look also for the uniforms of the hall staff that will be redesigned by the students of POLIMODA, The Fashion School in Florence.

The museum’s new official guidebook reflecting its new identity will be published, as well as the English version of the Repertory of Paintings of the Accademia Gallery of Florence. New acquisitions will join the collections.

The Accademia Gallery opens its program of scheduled events just today, Monday, Jan. 29, with Kinkaleri who will present AcrossKissKissYou, a site-specific performance, designed specifically for the museum’s spaces, a work between theatrical experimentation, movement research and dance. This and much more to be announced later in the year.

Florence, Accademia Gallery breaks visitor record: more than 2 million by 2023

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