Bologna Academy of Fine Arts, Italy

The Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, also named as Accademia Clementina, is an institution of high artistic and cultural education of university rank, based in via delle Belle Arti 54 in Bologna and with a detachment in Ravenna. The Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, one of the oldest in Italy, is a place of study, production and preservation of art, dedicated to the training of artists, designers and professionals in this field.

The Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna is regulated by MIUR, in the university sector of higher artistic and musical training, and issues 1st level (degree) and 2nd level (master’s degree) academic diplomas. It is one of the “historical” academies of fine arts, placed in 1804 in the present site, the once cloister of Sant’Ignazio, the Academy was originally founded in 1710 as the Clementine Academy, from which it inherited and subsequently implemented the historical core of the sculptural heritage of chalk, paintings, drawings, prints and documents that it still preserves today.

From the initial four classes of teaching, one for painters, one for sculptors, one for architects and one for art scholars, the Academy has in recent years expanded its training offering with disciplines close to contemporary, respecting always their tradition and maintaining the specificity of technical and theoretical knowledge.

There have been so many great masters who have contributed to making it an Institution of Higher Education today: from Carlo Cignani, first Prince of the Academy, to Donato Creti, from Antonio Basoli to Giacomo de Maria, from Giorgio Morandi to Virgilio Guidi, up to Quinto Ghermandi and Concetto Pozzati to name just a few. The rich plastic, archival, pictorial and graphic heritage kept in school spaces is still subject to study, reorder, cataloguing and research by academics and students of the Academy itself and becomes public and shared in the galleries and digital exhibits presented here.

History
In October 1711 Pope Clement XI placed the seal on the statutes of the Academy which, founded in Bologna two years ago, had taken the name of Clementina in his honor.

Structured on the model of the Académie Royal in Paris and the Roman Academy of San Luca, the Institution was also inspired by the previous Bolognese artistic associations, from the Caraccesian Academy of the Incamminati, to that of the Ottenebrati, up to the free partnerships gathered in recent times around some patrons of the city. Not surprisingly, a noble idea of artistic knowledge based on texts as well as on the exercise of drawing was accompanied by reverence for the magnificent Bolognese art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the concept of teaching, whose activity, which began in January 1710 in Palazzo Fava, will continue from 1712 in the headquarters of Palazzo Poggi.

Here the Academy found a place next to the Institute of Sciences on the initiative of General Luigi Ferdinando Marsili that both institutions had tenaciously wanted, continuing to support them later. All the most important artists of the city gathered around the cultural project – whose main architect was Gian Pietro Zanotti: among others Carlo Cignani, Marcantonio Franceschini, Giuseppe Mazza, Donato Creti, Giuseppe Maria Crespi to which Ferdinando Bibiena will soon be added.

The best Bolognese artists, including Angelo and then Domenico Piò, Vittorio Bigari, Felice Torelli, Francesco Tadolini, Ubaldo and Gaetano, will gradually contribute to the activity of the Academy both in the didactic field and in the protection of the historical heritage. Gandolfi, Jacopo Alessandro Calvi up to the architect Angelo Venturoli, the engraver Francesco Rosaspina, the landscape painter Vincenzo Martinelli, the sculptor Giacomo Rossi who marked the last years of the Clementina, in the sunset after the suppression of 1796.

From the ashes of the old Academy immediately arose a more modern organism, the National Academy, established in 1802 as part of the general reform of the studies desired by the Napoleonic regime. If in the pictorial sphere the traditional models continue to prevail, other disciplines are affirmed thanks to the quality of the Masters, such as the Sculpture of Giacomo De Maria and Cincinnato Baruzzi, or to the modernity of the objectives, such as the Ornate, whose teaching will have large following also in virtue of the varied and profound culture of Antonio Basoli.

As the political conditions change, the name of the Academy will change several times over time (Reale, Pontificia, Regia), but its didactic-institutional structure will remain almost unchanged until the twentieth century, even if the conservation and restoration functions will pass to the Pinacoteca (autonomous since 1882) and then to the Superintendency. Of note among the teachers is the Tuscan Antonio Puccinelli, a rare case of extra-citizen opening that feeds the local vocation of Bolognese painting on Macchiaiola culture.

The fundamental turning point was marked in the twentieth century by the Gentile Reform of 1923 which frees the academies from the lower formative tasks, placing them at the highest level of artistic education. In the new system, the chair of engraving techniques will go to Giorgio Morandi who will keep it for over a quarter of a century, cultivating students who will then continue his teaching, such as Paolo Manaresi and Luciano De Vita. Almost in the same period Virgilio Guidi will succeed on the chair of Painting to Augusto Majani, among whom pupils Pompilio Mandelli and Ilario Rossi will in turn be teachers in the Academy. While Giovanni Romagnoli is mentioned in the teaching of Decoration, in the Ercole Drei Sculpture he molds a generation of artists that sees Luciano Minguzzi and Quinto Ghermandi emerge.

Like other state art academies in Italy, the Accademia of Bologna became an autonomous degree-awarding institution under law no. 508 dated 21 December 1999, and falls under the Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universita e della Ricerca, the Italian ministry of education and research.

In December 2008 students of the academy occupied it for a week; an eighteenth-century plaster cast was broken.

The new Accademia Clementina
The Accademia Clementina was re-founded as a learned society in 1931. It shares the premises of the Accademia, and has three classes of membership: honorary members; “effective” members, who are the teaching staff of the Accademia; and correspondent members. It publishes a journal, the Accademia Clementina. Atti e Memorie.

The Building
The Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna is located in the heart of the university area. Together with the National Art Gallery, it occupies the complex of the Church of Sant’Ignazio and Novitiate of the Jesuits, erected by Alfonso Torreggiani between 1728-1735. The Academy was rebuilt in the Napoleonic era and, having abandoned the Clementine headquarters of Palazzo Poggi, it was transferred to this conventual building, suitably adapted (the Church of Sant’Ignazio was transformed into the Aula Magna of the Academy; the dome was reduced in 1805). Subsequently the Collamarini wing was added, while the annexation of the modern premises of the Artistic Lyceum (Irnerio wing) is recent.

New extensions have been made in recent years, in the overall space redevelopment work of the Academy of Fine Arts: in 1997 with the renovation of the basement, new common exhibition spaces of the Academy and the Pinacoteca, called “Halls of Fine Arts”, were added, alongside which the Museum of the Academy was opened; together with the Arcangeli room, used for lectures and conferences, the Guidi room and the adjoining gallery were built, used as teaching and exhibition spaces; in 2001 the former theater was transformed into a multipurpose room as “Pavilion De Vita”.

In the complex of the Academy of Fine Arts there are the classrooms for theoretical activity and laboratories. The Aula Magna is used for theoretical lessons, conferences and video projections. The painting, sculpture, and engraving workshops are distributed on the ground floor, anatomy and decoration are located on the first floor, in the different wings of the building; the scenography laboratories are located in the theater.

Entrance

Entering from the main door of the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, an emblematic view is presented: a long corridor set up with panels fixed into the walls and imposing sculptures that welcome visitors in this place of long artistic tradition. The artworks that inhabit this space are plaster casts, copies taken from ancient and modern statuary whose function has always been to serve as a model for the students practicing the art of drawing. The collection of this heritage starts in 1714 thanks to General Marsili, an important figure for the founding of the Academy, who wanted to equip the fledgling school with the most updated teaching material. The plastics plaster fund grow over the centuries thanks to further donations, creating a gipsothèque that collects copies of works by the greatest sculptors, from ancient Greece to the Italian Renaissance.

Sculpture
Crossing the threshold of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, the entrance corridor presents a look that represents the history and artistic tradition of this institution. In fact, the space preserves an important and majestic corpus of sculptural works set up around 1860, in order to give a fascinating and emblematic perspective view. In the initial part of the corridor, in particular, the numerous bas-reliefs set in the walls grouped in geometric shapes are striking. These are plaster casts of the fifteenth-century panels of the three portals of the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna which were executed between 1810 and 1820. The originals date back to the ‘300 and’ 400 d.C. including the group of the Porta Magna made by Jacopo della Quercia, the well-known Sienese sculptor.

Sofocle (Copy) (First decades of the nineteenth century)
The sculpture on the left represents Sophocles. The work appears to be of good workmanship and is attributable to the first decades of the nineteenth century. It is a plaster cast of a marble copy, perhaps from the Augustan period, from a bronze original by Leochares placed in the Theater of Dionysus in Athens (328-326 BC).
Germanico (Copy) (Mid-18th century)
This work, called Germanic, is a plaster cast from an original of the Augustan age, from a type of 450 BC probably depicting Augustus as a young Hermes. The Bolognese example, from the mid-18th century, arrived in Bologna at the behest of Benedict XIV and was derived from the counter-mold of a copy by the French Academy.

Relief
As with all-round sculptures, these casts served also as models for students who practiced drawing, still maintaining this educational function. Recently, they have also been used as a fundamental reference for the restoration of the original panels of the door of the Basilica of Piazza Maggiore. A plaque on the left wall of the corridor bears witness to the additional decorative value of these panels, placed at the entrance of the Academy to amaze the visitor and show the beauty of art: “Who admires the plaster molds, marveling at the strength and the intelligence of art, preserves the evidence of the existence of the Petroniana Basilica, through the entrance walls instead of through the books”. A curious anecdote is told about these bas-reliefs. Mr. Pietro Onofri, a man working as a janitor at the Academy, collaborated in the cast of three of the panels, taking the nickname of “il Formetta”.

In the two side walls of the corridor, the different sections of the entire doors are clearly visible although placed in random order. Among all the tiles, those made by Jacopo Della Quercia for the Porta Magna, are recognizable by the subjects represented. The jambs of the portal are composed of ten bas-relief panels depicting the Genesis Stories, of which six are visible in the central line of the left side. The scenes of the New Testament, placed in the architrave of the Porta Magna, are positioned below the arched panels on the right wall. The prophets in the middle arc are instead referable to the work of Antonio Minello and Antonio da Ostiglia, except for the Mosé in the center which appears to have been made by Amico Aspertini.

The panels represent some significant episodes of the Genesis Stories, including the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, the original Sin, the Expulsion from the earthly Paradise, the Work of the progenitors, the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel, the Killing of Abel, the Exit from the Ark of Noah, the Awe of Noah and the Sacrifice of Isaac.

The Creation of Eve. In the Paradise, mentioned only with a chipped rock and two saplings in the background, God creates Eve, with a blessing gesture that makes her rise from the rib of sleeping Adam. The original Sin. The scene represents the moment in which Eve captures the forbidden fruit from the tree on which the tempting Serpent is rolled. Adam assists condescendingly. The Expulsion from Paradise. The scene is inspired by the vitality of the Expulsion of Masaccio: Jacopo della Quercia copies the pose of eve from Venus Pudica, while further developing the conflict between Adam and the Angel. The work of the progenitors. The environmental notations are very scarce, given only by the ground on which Adam works the earth with difficulty, while Eve, with her children Cain and Abel at her feet, is intent on spinning.

The Scenes from the New Testament are located in the historiated architrave. In order Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Presentation at the Temple, Massacre of the Innocents and Fugue in Egypt.

The remaining panels, made by other artists for the three portals, represent further Scenes of the Old and New Testament and single characters, including Angels bearing the symbols of passion and the eighteen Prophets. The Last Supper, located in the architrave of the right portal. The baptism of Christ carved in a panel of the right portal. Three panels of the left portal represent Jacob’s Fight with the Angel, Isaac blesses Jacob, the Burial of Rachel. Angels and Prophets depicted in the three series of arches of the central portal.

Aula Magna
A prestigious venue for meetings and institutional events, the Aula Magna was originally the Church dedicated to Sant’Ignazio, part of the complex of the Jesuit Novitiate, today home to both the Academy and the National Gallery. Built in the Eighteenth Century by Alfonso Torreggiani, it unveils its original function in the dome, the columns and the two large altarpieces, inspired by the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, placed above the “coretto”. The space of the hall, emphasized by plaster casts of classical sculptures, hosts on the walls the paintings that refer directly to the history of the institution: the Fama, become today the institutional logo of the Academy and the Impresa of the Accademia Clementina.

Highlights works

Fame (1696 – 1710) by Marcantonio Franceschini
Chosen as the institutional logo of the Academy of Fine Arts, it depicts the Allegory of Fame. The author was a well-known bolognese artist and vice prince of the Accademia Clementina. The work is what remains of the ephemeral scenography realized for the funeral of Carlo Cignani, first prince of the Academy and Franceschini’s own master. His portrait is embedded in the wind vane.
Impresa of Accademia Clementina (1722) by Giuseppe Orsoni
The composition contains the motto of the Accademia Clementina, founded in 1710 with the approval of Pope Clement XI, from who it takes its name. It represents also the symbol that gather the instruments of the three arts: brush, compass and chisel.
Vision of St. Ignatius of Loyola (1732) by Giacomo Pavia
The two altarpieces are the only works that date back to the religious period of the building. Both represent St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit order.
St. Ignatius attacked (1726) by Felice Torelli
Roma intangible (1888) by Antonio Muzzi
Esteemed Professor of the Academy, Antonio Muzzi well represents the development of history painting in Bologna at the end of the Nineteenth Century. In the painting, Rome dresses the clothes of the popular Regina Margherita, inspirer of Umberto Carducci “Eternal Feminine Regale”, embodying the ideology of Umbertine Italy.

Sculpture

Galata Morente (Copy)
Among the plaster casts placed along the walls of the Aula Magna we recognize different figures of classical statuary.
Laocoonte (Copy) (Mid-18th century)
Entering the hall we immediately meet Laocoonte. The work is a plaster cast of the original in marble dating back to the 1st century AD. The original was made by Hagesandros, Athenadoros and Polydoros, sculptors of Rhodes, preserved in the Vatican Museums. Compared to the reassembled original, the cast is missing the child figures.
Santa Susanna (Copy) (1757) by Francois Duquesnoy
Fauno Barberini (Copy) (Early 19th century)
Apollo del Belvedere (Copy)
The Apollo del Belvedere, depicts the greek God, father of all the arts, and represents one of the models most used for studies on the human body. This cast was made from a marble copy of the Hadrianic period of the bronze original probably by Leochares. A curious note about the mode of transport of these casts: the Apollo mantle will reach Bologna in the Academy only one year after the arrival of the main block, as evidenced by a letter dated 20 April 1715.
The slavery (Copy) (1888) by Diego Sarti
Sileno con Bacco bambino (Copy) (Beginning of the eighteenth century)
David (Copy) (1900) by Michelangelo
Arria e Peto (Copy) (Mid-18th century)
Dying Slave (Copy) (1850) by Michelangelo
The Dying Slave is a plaster copy of the original marble made by Michelangelo in 1513, preserved at the Louvre in Paris. The work looks back to the ancient statuary, in particular Hellenistic. The figure is abandoned in a languid pose, with the laces crossing his chest, barely removed from one hand, while the left arm is bent upwards to support the falling head.
Rebel Slave (Copy) by Michelangelo
Another copy made from a Michelangelo sculpture is the Rebellious Slave, portrayed as he tries to free himself from the ties that imprison his hands, twisting and turning his torso and head. Both sculptures date back to the second project for the tomb of Julius II, the one agreed with the Della Rovere heirs in May 1513.
Coretti Aula Magna
Another important section of the collection of sculptures has recently been set up in the spaces of the choir, which became an exhibition venue. The route reorganizes and show to the city the precious collection of statues, busts, plaster casts, bas-reliefs with works ranging from Bernini to Canova, from 18th-century Bolognese neoclassical sculpture to 20th-century masters like Drei, Minguzzi, Ghermandi.

Sala Clementina
This space is today the hall of Professors, where exams and meetings with students are held. Originally was probably the apse of the Church of Sant’Ignazio, as can be seen from the presence of the columns that suggest the ideal continuation of the Aula Magna. The Sala Clementina owes its name to the presence of the bust of Pope Clement XI. The walls of this room exhibit most of the paintings in the collection with a wide selection of portraits from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, representing professors of the Academy or high-ranking personalities. Some of these artworks were donated by the artists awarded the title of Accademici d’Onore or by well-known personalities of the city. All these paintings is a visible witness of the italian and foreign personalities who took part in the history of the Academy.

The Aula Clementina, now used as Professor’s Hall and as institutional place, holds much of the picture gallery set up on the walls and several sculptures including a group of plaster casts. When the Academy was moved to its current location, this Hall was redecorated in the neoclassical style typical of the early 1800s. Within the sculptural patrimony preserved here, the presence of some sculptures recalling a Mesopotamian and Egyptising style attracts the curiosity.

These are copies of sculptural specimens dating back to the end of the 6th century BC, found at the temple of Golgoi in Cyprus by Luigi Palma di Cesnola, between 1866 and 1876, today part of the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The same American museum donated these casts to the Academy of Bologna which arrived at its headquarters on 22 February 1904.

Highlights works

Portrait of Petronio Fancelli (1785 – 1790)
Portrait of Giacomo Rossi (1824)
Selfportrait (1770)
Selfportrait (1772)
Portrait of Ludovico A. Muratori (1800)
Portrait of Vincenzo Martinelli (1809)
Portrait of Professor Bortolotti (1822 – 1886)
Portrait of the Cardinal Carlo Oppizzoni (1805)
Portrait of father Francesco (1864)
Male portrait (1801 – 1900)
Selfportrait of Antonio Puccinelli (1861)
Portrait of a gentleman (1800 – 1900)
Portrait of the engraver Rosaspina (1828)
The portrait of the engraver Rosaspina was realized in 1828, the year when the author, George Hayte, was nominated Accademico d’Onore thanks to the suggestion of Rosaspina himself.
Portrait of the Emperor Francesco I of Austria (1871)
Portrait of Ettore Panzacchi (1894)
This painting has a special meaning within the gallery, since the character depicted, Ettore Panzacchi, was the first professor of History and Art Criticism at the Academy, between 1872 and 1895. Panzacchi was know also as writer and critic. He moved to the University of Bologna to teach Aesthetics and History of modern art while remaining Director and President at the Academy until his death.
Portrait of Valentino Solmi (1859)
Calliope (1854)
Portrait of a man with white scarf (1900 – 1999)
Portrait of Silvio Gordini (1928)
Head of old man (1795)
Selfportrait of Gaetano Minossi(1786)
Portrait of a man with hat and earrings (1846 – 1888)
Selfportrait of Tullo Moy(1856 – 1894)

Arcadian landscape (1787) by Daniel Dupré
The paintings by Daniel Duprè and Guy Head confirm the relationship with the European artistic world that has always been cultivated by the Accademia Clementina.
Erminia writes the name of Tancredi (1787) by Guy Head
The paintings by Daniel Duprè and Guy Head confirm the relationship with the European artistic world that has always been cultivated by the Accademia Clementina.
Lout eating grapes (1798) by Giuseppe Soleri Brancaleoni
St. Petronio (1800) by Painter of the eighteenth century
The sacrifice of Alcesti (1781) by Johann Heinrich Tischbein
St. Girolamo (1812 – 1879) by Fausto Muzzi
Prometheus animates man in the presence of Minerva (Allegory of sculpture 1775 – 1803) by Jacopo Alessandro Calvi called Sordino

Sculpture

Statua di un sacerdote con una colomba (Copy) (End of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century)
Statua di Ercole (Copy) (End of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century)
Statua Maschile (Copy) (End of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century)
The presence of these works testifies a change in the taste of the artistic elite, no longer interested only in classical and Hellenistic antiquity but open to the suggestions of primitive art.

Sala Curlandese
This room, adjacent to the Sala Clementina, is a place for institutional meetings. The name refers to the monument realized by Antonio Venturoli and Giacomo De Maria dedicated to the Baltic Prince Pietro Biron, Duke of Curlandia and Semigallia, nominated as Accademico d’Onore during his tour in Italy. In 1787 the duke decides to establish the Curlandese Prize, awarded until the middle of the last century, giving a thousand gold ducats. The award was added to the other existing ones: the Marsili – Aldrovandi and the Fiori. The annual prizes, awarded at the end of the year, were the most stimulating aspect of the academic life, especially for young students. This room collects twenty-four small monochrome canvases, winner of the Marsili Award for the section School of Figure between 1728 and 1803. These small paintings, all monochromatic and made with high pictorial quality, represent themes chosen by the commission, either mythological or historical. In the room there are also three watercolor drawings representing perspectives and scenographies, an example of the very high teaching of the School of Architecture.

Neptune on a shell pulled by a pair of dolphins (1728) by Felice Ronchi
Alessandro Magno gives Campaspe to Apelle (1728) by Felice Ronchi
Unction of Davide (1730) by Gaetano Mannini
Adoration of the Magi (1733) by Giuseppe Maria Varotti
Armida up into the chariot after the destruction of his palace(1732) by Antonio Melani
Expulsion of Agar and Ismaele (1751) by Francesco Antonio Chiozzi
Mercurio in flight with the head of Argo (1752) by Antonio Raffi
Sansone caught by the Philistines (1754) by Antonio Raffi
Sansone turns the millstone (1754) by Giacomo Zampa
Fetonte and the chariot of the Sun (1756) by Giacomo Zampa
Death of Marco Giunio Bruto (1755) by Giacomo Zampa
Rinaldo prevents the suicide of Armida (1757) by Pietro Vighi
Adam gives the name to the animals (1758) by Angelo Bigari
Sacrifice of Noè (1758) by Jacopo Alessandro Calvi called Sordino
Mosè kills an Egyptian who has outraged a jew (1760) by Ubaldo Bonvicini
Argante and Clorinda in front of Aladino tyrant of Jerusalem (1761) by Ubaldo Bonvicini
Mosè difends Jetro’s daughters at the well of Madian (1760) by Giorgio Martina
Discovery of Lucrezia’s body (1761) by Pirtro Francesco Pancaldi
Lucio Giunio Bruto assists the beheading of two sons (1762) by Girolamo Cassiano Contoli
Sansone blinded by the Philistines (1765) by Angelo Michele Gottarelli
Flagellation of Christ (1779) by Carlo Prinetti
Venere in the forge of Vulcano (1780) by Antonio Fabri
Perseo shows to Atlante the Medusa’s head (1794) by Giovanni Masi
Rape of Proserpina (1803) by Luigi Basiletti
Magnificent atrium (1700) by Francesco Orlandi
Magnificent central plan atrium (1700) by Francesco Orlandi
Project of the cathedral od Montepulciano (1911) by Edoardo Stefano Collamarini

Main corridor
Advancing in the corridor leads to the central part finding ourselves surrounded by a remarkable group of sculptures. The layout of this space dates back to 1860 and today presents some significant examples of sculptural production over the centuries, including the Discobolo by Mirone, the Pietà by Michelangelo and the majestic Oceano by Giambologna.

Arianna (Copy) (Mid-18th century)
One of the first sculptures encountered on the left represents the body of Cleopatra, also identified as Arianna. This is the plaster cast of a roman copy in marble from the late Hadrianic period, made from an original from the 150 B.C. The posture appears strongly reclined with respect to the original.
Il Discobolo (Copy) (Beginning of the nineteenth century)
The plaster cast of the famous Discobolo by Mirone, created by the artist around 460 BC, it is datable at the beginning of the XIX century. It reproduces a Roman copy in marble preserved today in the Vatican Museums.
Pietà vaticana (Copy)
Among the most significant works within the sculpture heritage we find the plaster cast of the “Pietà Vaticana”, a marble sculpture executed by Michelangelo Buonarroti at the end of the XV century.
Santa Bibiana (Copy) (1857) by Gianlorenzo Bernini
Niobe con la figlia più piccola (Copy) (Mid-18th century)
Ocean (1800) by Giambologna
At the center of the corridor appears Oceano, it is a plaster cast of the work by Giambologna, a Flemish sculptor active in Italy, also famous for the Neptune fountain in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna. The cast was donated to the Academy by the Tuscan sculpture teacher Salvino Salvini and the original is in the Boboli Gardens in Florence.

Ala Collamarini
At the foot of Oceano, the gaze opens towards the side corridors and attention immediately goes to the Nike di Samotracia, who appears in the center of the Collamarini Wing. Along the walls are placed plaster and marble panels, made by Roman and Tuscan students attending the art school in Bologna, alternated with terracotta tiles, pretending to be bronze, representing the winning artworks of the Marsili-Aldrovandi award.

Sculpture
Nike di Samotracia (Copy) (End of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century)
The emblematic silhouette of the Nike of Samothrace stands out at the end of the corridor. It is a plaster cast of the famous sculpture now preserved in the Louvre Museum. The original dates back to 200 BC and comes from the island of Samothrace. This cast can be attributed to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Administrative Office
The wing of the Academy, where today the Administrative Offices are located, preserves some others paintings placed in the Directorate and the Presidency. Among these the two particular artwork Teschi accatastati and the unpublished little table Ritratto di Anna Beatrice d’Asburgo-Este dopo la morte. The wide corridor houses also the entire heritage of books from the historical library, rich in precious volumes including: the collection of prints of the roman antiquities by Giovan Battista Piranesi, the volumes of the Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d’Alambert and the main italian and foreign treatises of ornato, perspective and architecture – from Andrea Palladio to Vignola, Ottavio Scamozzi, Andrea Pozzo or Ferdinando Bibiena.