Florence, Accademia Gallery celebrates Michelangelo's 550th birthday: here's the program

In 2025, the Accademia Gallery in Florence is preparing to celebrate the 550th anniversary of the birth of Michelangelo Buonarroti (Caprese, 1475 - Rome, 1564) with an ambitious project entitled The Eternal Contemporary. Michelangelo 1475 - 2025. The initiative will kick off on March 6, 2025 and will run throughout the year, offering a rich calendar of events and activities designed to highlight the extraordinary relevance of one of the greatest protagonists of the Italian Renaissance. The figure of Michelangelo continues to exert a profound influence on artists, scholars and art lovers of every era. His innovative artistic vision and the expressive power of his works still inspire new reflections and interpretations today. The review organized by the Galleria dell’Accademia will feature the participation of distinguished figures from the world of art and culture, including Cristina Acidini, Francesco Caglioti, Marco Pierini, Tomaso Montanari, Francesco Gori and Vinicio Capossela, who will offer different perspectives on the artist’s legacy.

"With the project L’eterno contemporaneo. Michelangelo 1475 - 2025," emphasizes Massimo Osanna, Director General of Museums, avocating director, “the Accademia Gallery celebrates an artist whose vision and innovative spirit indelibly marked the history of art and continues to inspire entire generations. Our museums are no longer just places of conservation, but spaces of dialogue, laboratories where works of art coexist with music, theater and literature, offering audiences new narratives and keys to interpretation. This year of celebrations for the 550th anniversary of Michelangelo’s birth is an opportunity to rediscover his legacy through an inclusive cultural experience that enhances dialogue and broadens accessibility so that artistic heritage can be shared and experienced by all audiences.”

The Accademia Gallery in Florence has a deep historical connection with Michelangelo. In 1873, the famous David was moved to its halls, a tangible sign of the importance attributed to the master. Later, the Gallery housed a collection of plaster casts of his works, with the intention of creating a museum dedicated to Michelangelo. Although the project was not fully realized, over time the collections were enriched with masterpieces such as the Four Prisons, the St. Matthew and the Palestrina Pietà. The celebration program will open on Thursday, March 6, 2025, Michelangelo’s birthday, with an extraordinary opening of the Gallery from 7 to 9 p.m. In collaboration with theAssociation of Friends of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, thematic tours of the collection will be organized, led by expert art historians from the museum. Participation is restricted to members of the Association, with the opportunity to join online in the days leading up to or directly on March 6.

Beginning Monday, March 10, at 5:30 p.m., a series of lectures dedicated to Michelangelo’s complex personality and his influence in art history will kick off. Cristina Acidini will open the series with a talk on Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna, a friendship in the sign of art, analyzing one of the most unique relationships of the Italian Renaissance, characterized by deep spiritual, religious and political implications. On April 7, Francesco Caglioti will give a lecture entitled Michelangelo’s David: prehistory and protohistory, focusing on the genesis of the work and the historical context that fostered its creation. Caglioti will explore how Tuscan art waited for a figure capable of creating a sculpture of such grandeur and significance. On May 12, Marco Pierini will speak with Presence of Michelangelo in Contemporary Art and Culture, highlighting the master’s vast influence on 20th-century visual culture. Pierini emphasizes how Michelangelo’s legacy has found new declinations among homages, quotations and reinterpretations, stating that “”no other glue, except Michelangelo’s, could be identified to hold Giulio Aristide Sartorio and Robert Mapplethorpe, Leoncillo and Jan Fabre, Renato Guttuso and Kendell Geers together."

A special event is planned for June 9, at 6 p.m., with a reading by Tomaso Montanari and Francesco Gori entitled "Non ha la par cosa tutto il mondo. The Prisons and the Troubled Undertaking of the Tomb of Julius II. The event will be a journey through the troubled story of the tomb of Julius II, one of the most complex and painful projects of Michelangelo’s career. The event will offer a compelling narrative through original texts and historical documents, accompanied by interpretive readings that will give voice to the artist’s torment and greatness. Later this fall, on a date yet to be determined, Vinicio Capossela will return to the Accademia Gallery, following his memorable 2007 performance as part of Genio Fiorentino. On that occasion, he gave the audience a unique experience that has never been repeated. This time, the musician will return to intertwine his art with Michelangelo, under the gaze of the David and the Prisoners. The concert Fuggite, Amanti, Amor - Rime e Lamentazioni per Michelangelo will see him engaged in an intense musical dialogue with Michelangelo’s Rime, accompanied by a group of musicians, including cellist Mario Brunello. Closing the festival, on Monday, Dec. 15, at 6 p.m., will be another musical moment realized in collaboration with the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory of Florence. The protagonist will be the Thesan Trio, an all-female group composed of Antonella Ciccozzi (harp), Giuseppina Ledda (flute) and Francesca Piccioni (viola). The program will include pieces by Claude Debussy and Sofia Gubaidulina, as well as Antonio Vivaldi’s Folly, alternating musical performance with readings from Michelangelo’s poems.

In parallel with the scheduled events, numerous educational initiatives will be promoted to broaden accessibility to Michelangelo’s work. Dedicated itineraries will be organized between March and fall (October-December), with four tactile visits in collaboration with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Florence and eight visits in Italian sign language (LIS), thanks to the support of the Ente Nazionale Sordi of Florence. The tactile visits, St. Matthew and the Prisons, exploring the form immersed in marble, will provide an opportunity to understand Michelangelo’s creative process through direct exploration of his sculptures. Participants will be able to touch the St. Matthew and some Prisons, wearing special gloves, and discover sculptural techniques through faithful reproductions of the tools used by the artist. Tours in LIS, Sculptures in the Academy, will delve into the evolution of Renaissance sculpture, comparing Michelangelo’s works with Giambologna’s terracruda model of The Rape of the Sabine Women, highlighting the expressive potential of the material and technique.

To further enrich the public’s experience, an informative web-app will be launched with multimedia content and insights into the works of Michelangelo and the artists who took up his legacy in the 16th century. The virtual tour will allow visitors to explore the contexts of origin of the works, suggesting comparisons and thematic itineraries that will also guide them outside the museum, to the most significant Florentine places related to Michelangelo’s life and art, such as the Medici Chapels and the Bargello Museum.

Florence, Accademia Gallery celebrates Michelangelo's 550th birthday: here's the program

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