Venus Entering the Bath by Luigi Pampaloni

A new exhibition layout has been developed around the acquisition, in December 2024, by the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, of the preparatory terracotta model of Venus Entering the Bath (circa 1836) by Luigi Pampaloni (Florence 1791-1847). 

 Conceived as a new display , it allows visitors to appreciate the complexity of nineteenth-century “artistic creation” and to appreciate its vitality and evolution, from the initial idea to the finished work, through a direct comparison of sketch, model, and marble replica.

The Gallery also houses an extraordinary collection of plaster casts by Lorenzo Bartolini (Prato 1777 - Florence 1850) and his pupils, among whom Pampaloni occupies a prominent place. 

In the elegant, richly illustrated catalog, produced in Italian and English, the model thus becomes a symbol of a dual evolution: that of an artist who, from terracotta to marble, translates his idea of natural and sentimental beauty into form; and that of the Gallery, which continues to renew itself, grow, and look to the future, faithful to its educational vocation and increasingly aware of its central role in the Italian museum network.