The Gallerie dell'Accademia is the most important museum-gallery in Venice. It houses all the treasures of Venetian paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. The Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo by Gentile Bellini, the Legend of St Ursula by Vittore Carpaccio, The Tempest by Giorgione, St. Mark's body brought to Venice by Jacopo Tintoretto, The Feast in the House of Levi by Veronese and the Pieta by Titian are just a few of the masterpieces hanging on the walls of the museum. Canvases belonging to foreign artists who worked in Venice, such as Charles Le Brun and Johann Liss, can also be found in the Gallerie. There is even a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, the Vitruvian Man.
The complex of buildings that constitutes the museum also has a long history. Originally the three structures were a church, a convent and a confraternity, La Chiesa and La Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Carita, and the Convento dei Canonici Lateranensi. The church and convent were built in the 12th century, then renovated in the 15th and then again in the 16th by Andrea Palladio. The confraternity was erected in the 13th and was also reconstructed several times in subsequent centuries. In 1630 a devastating fire destroyed a great part of the church and in 18th century its belfry collapsed, never to be rebuilt. The church, convent and confraternity were finally suppressed by the French in 1806.
A year later, by decree of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Fine Arts Academy moved into the confraternity building from its premises by St Mark's Square. Its first director was Giambattista Piazzetta and its first president became Giambattista Tiepolo. The pictorial collection that we see in the museum today constituted the picture gallery of the Fine Arts Academy. It was first opened to the public in 1817. After some time the two institutions split and the museum became an independent entity, although they both continued their activity under one roof. It was only in 2004 that the Fine Arts Academy moved to another building, the former hospital known as the Ospedale degli Incurabili, located on the Fondamenta delle Zattere.
Today the Gallerie dell'Accademia is a fundamental stop for anyone coming to Venice to learn about its history and admire its artistic culture. Not to see the Gallerie is basically not to see the glory of Venetian painting, or better, not to see Venice through the eyes of its greatest aesthetes.