And in Angelico's rooms there is a little, modest Annunciation by one of his school--No.

256--which shows what a good influence he was, and to which the eye returns and returns.

Here also, on easels, are two portraits of Vallombrosan monks by Fra Bartolommeo, serene, and very sympathetically painted, which cause one to regret the deterioration in Italian ecclesiastic physiognomy; and Andrea del Sarto's two pretty angels, which one so often finds in reproduction, are here too.
Let us now enter the first room of the collection proper and begin at the very beginning of Tuscan art, for this collection is historical and not fortuitous like that of the Pitti.

The student may here trace the progress of Tuscan painting from the level to the highest peaks and downwards again.

The Accademia was established with this purpose by that enlightened prince, Peter Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1784.