The Galleria delle Belle Arti is a musem situated in Via Ricasoli, just past the Accademia delle belle Arti.

Pietro Leopoldo, commissioned this museum in 1784 by decreeing that all the schools of drawing in Florence were to be united into a single Academy and that it was to contain a gallery of paintings by old masters to help the studies of the artists. It is still here in the buildings that once belonged to the Hospital of San Matteo and to the nearby convent of San Niccoló. The Grand Duke also decided to include music (the Cherubini Conservatory of today) and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure among the arts. This is a real citadel of the arts which still occupies, almost the entire block between Piazza San Marco, via Ricasoli, via degli Alfani, piazza Santissima Annunziata e via Battisti.

Both the Academy Gallery and the future classrooms were designed and restructured in 1781 by Gaspare Maria Paoletti.

The first room contains the original plaster model by Giambologna for the marble sculptures of the Rape of the Sabines visible in the Loggia dei Lanzi.

The Michelangelo's David (1502-4), in the beautifully lit Tribune, designed specifically by architect De Fabris, is situated at the far end of this spectacular gallery.

The so-called Palestrina Pietà, which some critics believe is not by Michelangelo but by his workshop, is placed further forward to the right.

Near the exit one can find several rooms containing 13th and 14th century works of art, including many paintings by pupils of Giotto.