Accademia Gallery was a short 3-minute walk from our hotel in Florence. Despite this, my roommate and I woke up around 7AM to get to the gallery an hour before opening. We got dressed and quickly headed down the street. The gallery opened at 9AM and we got there at approximately 8:15AM. There were still about 10 people in line ahead of us. A few minutes later, a couple got in line behind us. The next time I looked around, there were over 50 people in line after us, and we still had about 15 minutes to open. Once the museum did open, their first priority was getting everyone with preregistered tickets inside. It took us about 10 minutes for our line to even begin moving. By around 9:30 AM, we were in.
Inside we had two options inside the first room. We could continue the causal museum route or follow a smaller path that leads to an instrument museum. Of course, we chose the latter. There was an arrangement of different wooden instruments. I was unfamiliar with the names of the instruments but some of the cello-like ones were larger than myself!
The first exhibit outside this subsection was a bronze head of Michelangelo exhibit. The exhibit begins with 3D recreations of the bronze heads. There were mirrors behind these replicas for us viewers to get the full 360 viewpoints. We then finally saw the actual bronze heads. Each one was of Michelangelo but still looked different from the other. Some were purely heads and others were down a little past shoulder length. The attention to detail was so meticulous for each head. I couldn't imagine the patience it took to create the bronze heads. The museum staff has my full respect for the amount of work that went into replicating each head. The brief video they showed prior to entering shows a head being scanned over and over until they are sure each dip is measured, each raise is in the right location etc. The Accademia Gallery was one of the best museums I have been to in terms of art preservation.
I am glad you were able to go in and were dedicated in waiting in line for so long !! I could never stand for that long but it seems like it was worth it!! I loved how you said they had mirrors behind the heads so you could see the whole heads from all angles, makes you wish they would do that to maybe more museums to other important pieces.
ReplyDeleteAnnmarie,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your statement about the meticulous care that went into the bust exhibit, I wish it hadn't been so crowded so we could spend more time appreciating the detail that went into each creation. Despite its small size the Galleria Accademia had a great range of preserved pieces, and while some were difficult to see it was still an incredible experience.