Art Institute of Florence

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Istituto d'arte di Firenze (Art Institute of Florence)
Piazzale di Porta Romana
Florence, January 2017

“The Art Institute of Florence opened in 1869 as a school of carving, was converted in 1880 to a trade school for the decorative arts, and finally became an industrial and artistic institute in 1919. Since 1924, the Institute has been located on the premises that housed the royal stables of the palace of Palazzo Pitti, very close to the Porta Romana, in the middle of a park that borders on the Boboli Gardens. The Royal Stables and its environs are located near the surviving walls of Florence. It has long been the center of controversy for being improperly used as an access point to the Boboli Gardens or as a parking lot for automobiles. It is from here that Robert and Sienna seek access to the Boboli Gardens in the novel Inferno. A project was recently approved for the improvement and redevelopment of this green space. Today, the Institute is called the Art School of the Porta Romana (Liceo Artistico di Porta Romana) and it houses the most interesting collection of plaster models in Italy, especially models of the art of the Florentine Renaissance. Over the years, 3000 plaster casts of important masterpieces of sculpture have been collected here dating from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. The most important models are those related to the works of Donatello and those from the collection of the Accademy Gallery.” (Liceo Artistico di Porta Romana, Florence Inferno)