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In the same museum as Michelangelo's David is a slightly creepy gallery of plaster cast models.
Huge crowds of tourists flock to Florence's Accademia Gallery (Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze) to see Michelangelo's David, one of the greatest works of art ever created. But that well-known statue frequently overshadows the museum's other treasures, like this unique exhibit that houses a large collection of plaster cast sculptural models. A special location where the museum's beginnings as a teaching gallery are on display is the Gipsoteca Bartolini (Hall of Models). Students from the art academy next door formerly used the Academia Gallery to study the creations of famous artists. Lorenzo Bartolini, a sculptor and academy professor from the 19th century, was one of these greats. More than 250 plaster replicas of Bartolini's sculptures and those of his student Pampaloni are kept in the Gipsoteca, a loose recreation of his studio.
