Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello are renovating and enriching their exhibition space with two refined classical marble sculptures: the “Citharist Apollo” and the “Naked Hero with horn”, from the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, which has granted them temporary storage as part of a development agreement between the two autonomous institutions of the Ministry of Culture. The two works, located in the niches on the walls of the current exit of the Galleria dell’Accademia, will be on view starting November 18th.

Inspired by a 2nd-century AD model, the statue of “Apollo the Citharist” depicts the god of music and the arts playing the lyre; his idealized face features parted lips and an ecstatic gaze, alluding to the accompaniment of song. The work, which reworks elements of the lysippean tradition with late hellenistic influences, presents a rare iconography in sculpture in the round, comparable only significantly to an example held at the National Archaeological Museum of Venice.

The small sculpture of the naked Hero with a horn, dating back to between the 1st and 2nd century AD, reproduces in its ancient part – corresponding to the torso and upper part of the legs – the famous model of Heracles created by Polykleitos in the second half of the 5th century BC. In modern times, the head, arms and base were integrated into the statue, giving rise to the figure of a young hunter-hero – perhaps Meleager accompanied by his dog.

The two works were placed in the niches on the walls of the current exit of the Galleria dell’Accademia—a neoclassical-style space that, during the Lorraine era, served as the entrance vestibule to the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. Founded in 1588 by Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici, the Opificio was moved between 1797 and 1798 to its current location, the former monastery of San Niccolò, on Via degli Alfani, by order of Ferdinand III of Habsburg-Lorraine. His bust, along with the corresponding epigraph, can still be seen above the entrance door.