"The Accademia Galleries, the largest museum structure of Venice and the Veneto region, offer an unparalleled survey of five centuries of Venetian painting. After the Accademia was moved, in 1807, from the Fonteghetto della Farina to the Gothic Scuola and Church of Santa Maria della Carità and Palladio's Convento dei Canonici Lateranensi (which in themselves represent a monumental complex of great historic and artistic interest), the collections grew steadily: so much so that as soon as the Galleries became independent, in the late nineteenth century, the works exhibited were restircted to panels and canvases of the Venetian School. The remaining material, including non-Venetian paintings, were distributed among other institutes."--Preface.