They are the most important painting museum in Venice, hosted inside the former Church and School of Santa Maria della Carità (St.Mary of Charity) and annexed monastery, nowadays seat of the Venice Art Academy. It collects a rich collection of paintings by Venetian painters between XIV and XVIII century, offering a complete view over the Venetian art in those centuries.

There are exposed works by: Vittore Carpaccio, Giovanni Bellini, Gentile Bellini, Andrea Mantegna, Giorgione, Lorenzo Lotto, Tiziano Vecellio, Jacopo Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Gian Battista Tiepolo, Canaletto, Francesco Guardi, Giambattista Piazzetta, Pietro Longhi and others. Among the most complete series there are the one by Carpaccio representing the Stories of Sant'Orsola and the one by Tintoretto about the Stories of San Marco.

Near the Academy there are: the Church of San Trovaso, with works by Tintoretto father and son; the Church of St.Mary ai Gesuati, with works by Tintoretto and Piazzetta; the Church of San Sebastiano, frescoed by Veronese, who worked here a lot of years; the Great School of Carmini, with the facades by Longhena and works by Tiepolo inside.