ACCADEMIA, Prisoners

Few museums in the world can offer you an itinerary as spellbinding as the Galleria dell'Accademia. After the first room where you saw remarkable Renaissance sculptures and paintings, go to the left and enter the hall where six marvelous marble sculptures by Michelangelo await.

The hallway that precedes the Tribune where David proudly stands has four large nudes known as "Prisoners" or "Slaves" and St. Matthew, which was sculpted by Michelangelo in the early 16th century for Florence's Cathedral. Placed on both sides of the hallway, these imposing statues welcome you into a space that was designed as a true temple dedicated to Michelangelo's artistic universe; so don't rush right to David but start with the Prisoners, which Michelangelo began at the end of the 1520s but never finished, and take some time to enjoy the splendor that these enormous nudes transmit.

The Prisoners or Slaves were made for the tomb of Pope Julius II, who kept Michelangelo busy for forty long years, and who the artist himself called his tragedy. The Prisoners should have been at the base of the pontiff's funeral monument. There are also two others which are kept in the Louvre in Paris....