National Academy of San Luca, Rome, Italy
The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca is an association of artists from Rome, officially founded in 1593 by Federico Zuccari, who was also its first director (Prince), with the assumption of raising the work of the artists above simple craftsmanship.
The National Academy of Saint Luca has its origin in the institution established between the late 1500s and early 1600s when an ancient confraternity of painters associated with the Università delle Arti della Pittura held meetings at the little church of San Luca all’Esquilino in Rome (the church has since been demolished). In 1577 a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII at the urging of the painter Girolamo Muziano instituted the Accademia delle Arti della Pittura, della Scultura e del Disegno (the “Academy of the Arts of Painting, of Sculpture and of Drawing”), but it would be 1593 before the Academy was symbolically “founded” by Federico Zuccari with the formal approval of the original statutes of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma (the “Academy of the Painters and Sculptors of Rome” – but not architects, who were first welcomed into the ranks of the Academy only in 1634, when Pietro da Cortona was “Prince” of the institution).
“The National Academy of San Luca aims to promote the arts and architecture, to honor the merit of artists and scholars, by electing them in the Academic Corps, to work towards the enhancement and promotion of Italian arts and architecture. ”
In 1934, following the demolition of the Academy’s historical seat next to the church of Santi Luca e Martina – to make way for the new Via dell’Impero running through the Roman Forum – the Academy moved to its current headquarters in Palazzo Carpegna. From its foundation onwards, the Academy’s activities had always included teaching, in the form of conferences, symposia and courses in painting, sculpture and architecture, but in 1874 this aspect of the Academy’s work was delegated to the Reale Istituto di Belle Arti (now known as the Accademia di Belle Arti), while the Academy itself was charged with organising cultural activities intended to enrich and promote the fine arts.
Today such work continues via the publication of books regarding the Academy and its history, the organisation of exhibitions at the Academy’s headquarters, the safeguarding and conservation of its physical patrimony and the loaning of works from the Academy’s collections (drawings, paintings and sculptures) for display in national and international exhibitions. The Academy, also, focuses on young artists and scholars in particular through the distribution of scholarships and prizes.
History
During the first years of life, the association ended up in the orbit of the papal patronage, which dominated and controlled the institution. The academy was named in the early ‘600 to’ evangelist St. Luke after his appointment as protector of all painters. According to legend, in fact, Luke was the author of the first portrait of the Virgin Mary.
Before this institution, the artists referred to the very ancient University of Painters, Miniatures and Embroiderers, a guild whose trade status and privileges were renewed under Pope Sixtus IV on December 17, 1478: among the founders of the new guild, the famous Melozzo from Forlì, in its quality of pictor papalis.
The transition from “Universitas” to “Academy of the Arts of Painting, Sculpture and Drawing” took place on the initiative of the painter Girolamo Muziano and was officially sanctioned in 1577 by Gregorio XIII, but the effective transformation from the old to the new institution was gradual. For example, the transfer from the old seat of the church of San Luca (demolished in 1585) to the church of Santi Luca e Martina at the Roman Forum was granted by Sixtus V only in 1588. In fact, the official “foundation” of the Academy took place even later, in 1593, by Federico Zuccari, who was formally its first Prince.
The current National Academy of San Luca originates, through a series of passages that occurred between the second half of the sixteenth and the first of the seventeenth century, from the ancient University of the Arts of Painting in Rome. The first known Statutes of the Universitas picturae miniaturee date back to 1478, still kept in the academic archive, in whose illuminated frontispiece San Luca is depicted in the act of receiving the new rules of the art from four members of the University. The altarpiece of the small church of San Luca sull’Esquilino was dedicated to the evangelist saint, protector of the Painters, the first seat of the University, traditionally attributed to Raphael, and subsequently transported to the church of Santi Luca e Martina at the Roman Forum, then in Palazzo Carpegna, where it is still preserved.
The transition from Universitas to the Academy of the Arts of Painting, Sculpture and Drawing, on the initiative of the painter Girolamo Muziano, was officially sanctioned by a Brief issued by Gregory XIII in 1577. However, the effective transformation into the new institution was gradual, passing also through the transfer from the demolished church of San Luca (1585) to that of Santa Martina at the Roman Forum, granted in 1588 by Sixtus V to the University of Painters. A few years later, in 1593, the symbolic “foundation” of the Academy took place, by Federico Zuccari, the first Prince of the Academy, and only in 1607 the approval of the first known Statutes of the Academy of Painters and Sculptors of Rome. During the Principality of Pietro da Cortona, after 1634, the Architects joined the Academy with equal authority of Painters and Sculptors. The Statutes were subjected to repeated updates over the centuries until the very recent reform, which took place in 2005.
During the eighteenth century the prestige of the Academy reached its peak, obtaining international recognition, also testified by the request for aggregation of other Italian and foreign academies.
Thanks also to the fundamental role played by the teaching activity for the teaching of Drawing and the establishment of the Competitions, the Academy remained for a long time an international reference for the Fine Arts. Only after the suppression of the Schools, which took place in 1873, the Accademia would gradually begin to lose the centrality it had maintained for three centuries.
Competitions have been an important aspect of the Academy’s activities for the benefit of the arts. They were periodically banned using foundations and bequests from academics.
Already Federico Zuccari, first prince of the Academy, in 1595, began the custom of awarding prizes to the promising young people who attended the Academy of Drawing, a practice actually practiced regularly only starting from the second half of the seventeenth century.
From 1702 the most important of the academic competitions began, the Clementine one, from its founder Clemente XI. Every three years, medal prizes were awarded to painters, sculptors and architects on the occasion of solemn ceremonies taking place in the Capitol in the presence of the Pope. The awards became among the most awaited occasions of Roman artistic and cultural life. These ceremonies, starting in 1844, were held in the academic halls or in the school building in via Ripetta. The Clementino competition ran until 1869.
The competitions were divided, for each of the three arts, into three classes corresponding to a gradual difficulty of the assigned subjects. The competitors had a few months to prepare their essay, the autograph of which had to be confirmed by an impromptu test carried out in two hours at the site of the competition. The themes chosen in the conduct of the Clementini competitions were sacred, while those of the six-year competition of painting, sculpture and architecture established with the will of the academic painter Carlo Pio Balestra and banished from 1768 were profane.
The Clementini and Balestra competitions have left numerous paintings, sculptures and drawings at the Academy which have enriched its collections.
Numerous competitions were established during the 19th century. We remember the one wanted by Antonio Canova, who donated about one third of the sum that Pius VII assigned to him as recognition for the recovery of the works of art already stolen by Napoleon; that of painting named after Domenico Pellegrini, banned from 1844 and the one every three years of sculpture wanted by Filippo Albacini with testament of 1857. Followed by the competition Originals of painting and Poletti of architecture of 1869; the Lana competition for the three arts of 1872, Werstappen for landscape painting of 1873 and Montiroli for architecture since 1887. In 1874 the institutional purpose of teaching was taken away from the Academy. Later a period of economic decline began which, from the Second World War, with the monetary devaluation, it resulted in the insufficiency of the historical endowments and, consequently, the cessation of the competitions. However, the Academy of San Luca has resumed the promotion of the arts through the awarding of prizes and scholarships to young artists and young scholars.
Starting from its origins, the Academy of San Luca set itself the goal of imparting artistic teaching to young Italians and foreigners who wanted to improve their skills in the arts in Rome.
In 1593, in fact, under the principality of Federico Zuccari, the teaching of drawing was established at the academic headquarters next to the church of Santa Martina. Later, in 1754, Benedict XIV founded the Academy of Nude in the Capitol and entrusted its direction to the Academy of San Luca. The Capitoline seat proved, however, not very functional and Pius VII assigned to the school of the Nude a part of the suppressed monastery of the Converted to the Course. The project to reuse this building included, among other things, the construction of an exhibition hall, which however was never implemented.
At the time of the French government, in 1810, the Academy was officially assigned the task of training artists in the context of a general reorganization of the institution.
In this context, the Scuola del Nudo was integrated into a wider didactic project which involved teaching a broad spectrum of theoretical and practical knowledge. Closely linked to this new function is the problem of a location suited to the teaching activity.
Initially, the convent of the Aracoeli was assigned to the Academy, which, however, did not prove to be suitable for the needs of the institution, which then moved to a part of the building located next to the church of Sant’Apollinare, former seat of the Germanic-Hungarian College. This seat did not have a long use. The Napoleonic episode closed, the Pope returned to power, the academic schools continued to carry out their activity in the Germanic College only until April 1825, when Leo XII assigned some rooms of the Sapienza to the Academy.
Starting from this year, there are many complaints from academics due to the insufficiency and inadequacy of the spaces assigned to them and the relative negative effects on teaching. The debate did not end until 1845, the year in which Gregory XVI granted to the Academy the building built by Pietro Camporese in via Ripetta, called “Ferro di Cavallo”, currently home to the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and the Art School.
In 1874, following the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy, the task of artistic teaching was removed from the Academy of San Luca. It therefore had to leave the school building in via Ripetta and reduce its activity in the spaces of the historical site at the Roman Forum.
Today in the new headquarters of Palazzo Carpegna the teaching activity is aimed at collaborations with institutions for special advanced training courses.
Teaching
Starting from its origins, the Academy of San Luca set itself the goal of imparting artistic teaching to young Italians and foreigners who wanted to improve their skills in the arts in Rome.
In 1593, in fact, under the principality of Federico Zuccari, the teaching of drawing was established at the academic headquarters next to the church of Santa Martina. Later, in 1754, Benedict XIV founded the Academy of Nude in the Capitol and entrusted its direction to the Academy of San Luca. The Capitoline seat proved, however, not very functional and Pius VII assigned to the school of the Nude a part of the suppressed monastery of the Converted to the Course. The project to reuse this building included, among other things, the construction of an exhibition hall, which however was never implemented.
At the time of the French government, in 1810, the Academy was officially assigned the task of training artists in the context of a general reorganization of the institution.
In this context, the Scuola del Nudo was integrated into a wider didactic project which involved teaching a broad spectrum of theoretical and practical knowledge. Closely linked to this new function is the problem of a location suited to the teaching activity.
Initially, the convent of the Aracoeli was assigned to the Academy, which, however, did not prove to be suitable for the needs of the institution, which then moved to a part of the building located next to the church of Sant’Apollinare, former seat of the Germanic-Hungarian College. This seat did not have a long use. The Napoleonic episode closed, the Pope returned to power, the academic schools continued to carry out their activity in the Germanic College only until April 1825, when Leo XII assigned some rooms of the Sapienza to the Academy.
Starting from this year, there are many complaints from academics due to the insufficiency and inadequacy of the spaces assigned to them and the relative negative effects on teaching. The debate did not end until 1845, the year in which Gregory XVI granted to the Academy the building built by Pietro Camporese in via Ripetta, called “Ferro di Cavallo”, currently home to the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and the Art School.
In 1874, following the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy, the task of artistic teaching was removed from the Academy of San Luca. It therefore had to leave the school building in via Ripetta and reduce its activity in the spaces of the historical site at the Roman Forum.
Today in the new headquarters of Palazzo Carpegna the teaching activity is aimed at collaborations with institutions for special advanced training courses.
The collections
The collections of the Accademia di San Luca are of a non-homogeneous nature by type and origin of the works that compose them. These are pieces of considerable historical and artistic interest, datable between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. The largest group, however, dates mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries. The academic collections consist of more than a thousand paintings and three hundred sculptures, about five thousand five hundred drawings and a collection of prints and medals. The number of works preserved today in Palazzo Carpegna does not include, however, the totality of the pieces that over the centuries have become part of the academic heritage which, over the years, has been partially lost or otherwise dispersed.
The heterogeneous character of the Accademia’s collections is mainly due to the fact that they were created over time not according to a preordained design, but with gifts or bequests from academics or private collectors, with works from competitions launched by the Academy or used for educational purposes and with a group of paintings from the Capitoline Picture Gallery.
Starting from the oldest statutes of the Sodalizio, in fact, it was prescribed that every academic at the time of appointment left a gift of his own art in the academic collections (“pièce de réception”, gift of entry). Each academician was then asked to send his own portrait as a gift. Thus, in the 17th century, a gallery was created which took on a more concrete form during the 18th century.
Among the most important works preserved in the academic collections we can remember, for example, a detached fresco representing a Putto, attributed to Raphael, to whom the canvas of San Luca that paints the Madonna is also traditionally assigned; the Announcement to the shepherds by Jacopo Bassano; the Virgin and angels of Van Dyck; the Nymphs who crown the Abundance of Rubens; the Giuditta and Holofernes of Piazzetta; the self-portrait of Federico Zuccari; the portrait of Pietro Bernini attributed to his son Gian Lorenzo; the sculptures of Algardi, Bracci, Le Gros.
The collections of the Accademia di San Luca are exhibited, in part, in the Gallery, on the third and last floor of its current headquarters in Palazzo Carpegna and, in part, in the Academic Halls, in the Secretariat offices, in the Conference Room, located on the floor. noble, in the Sarti Library and in the Historical Archive which are located on the second floor. The rest of the
Contemporary Archive
The Contemporary Archive collects drawings by twentieth-century academic artists and architects and contemporaries who wanted to entrust the institution with the work they did throughout their work experience (there are, among others, the funds of the architects Mario Ridolfi, Mario De Renzi, Ugo Luccichenti, Maurizio Sacripanti, Carlo Chiarini) or who donated selected sheets exhibited by the Academy in the exhibition “For a collection of Contemporary Design” (Rome, 2009) and works exhibited in the exhibition “The collection of Contemporary Academic Masters “(Rome, 2010), officially inaugurated on the occasion of the reopening of some rooms of the Academic Gallery.
Historical Archive
In the Historical Archives of the National Academy of San Luca in Palazzo Carpegna there are documents of an iconographic and paper nature produced by the Academy from the 16th century. The huge and precious heritage substantially reflects the events and the evolution of one of the most important and ancient institutions present at national and international level in the field of art. Among the nuclei of greater consistency: the series of Statutes, partly also printed, which covers a chronological period from the 15th century (Statute of the Universitas Picture Miniature of 1478) up to the twentieth century; the series of registers of the Congregations (XVII-XIX centuries), of the minutes of the Meetings (XIX-XX centuries), of theGeneral Assemblies and of the Academic Council (XX century), of the Classes (Painting, Sculpture and Architecture) and of the Commissions (Administrative and Finance, XIX-XX centuries), and still the incomplete series relating to Academicians and Schools (XVII centuries- XX). The cards relating to the administrative and accounting management are divided into different groups such as the collection of the Justifications, the Entry and Exit Registers, the Ledgers(XVI-XIX centuries) as well as those relating to the management of special administrations (inheritances and legacies).
The nineteenth-century documentation and part of the twentieth-century documentation, both institutional and managerial, has mainly flowed into the Chronological Collection, also known as Tomassetti Collection, named after the perpetual secretary of the Academy who, from 1903, rearranged the cards according to a purely chronological criterion and, simultaneously, developed a search tool by name, by toponym and by topic. The documents, from the first decade of the twentieth century, are organized on the basis of a classification system (or title) which reflects the activity of the offices and academic bodies, in addition to the papers relating to competitions, exhibitions, heritage management academic and administrative-accounting activities. The historical archive of the Marmorari University is also deposited in the Historical Archiveof Rome, which can be consulted, with the authorization of the same University, by virtue of a sorting and inventorying operation carried out in 1991 by the Archival Superintendency for Rome and Lazio.
Today, following a specific agreement stipulated with the Department of Archival and Book Heritage of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, the whole complex of documents is at the center of a reorganization project aimed at improving the possibility of direct access and consultation also online. Alongside the documentary material, the Historical Archive preserves a remarkable collection of architectural drawings (more than 3,500 sheets) and figures(over 2,000 sheets). This material comes from the competitions for young people that the Academy banned from the 17th to the 19th century and from the gifts of individual academics presented for their entry into the Academy (Filippo Juvarra, Bernardo Vittone, Charles H. Tatham, Jacques-Germain Soufflot, Giovan Battista Piranesi architect and others) or linked in testament to the institution (as was, for example, for Ottaviano Mascarino architect or for Tommaso Minardi painter). From the second half of the twentieth century, the Archive also keeps biographical files and some small documentary collections of individual academic artists.
New Multimedia Archive
Since 2012, the Accademia di San Luca has equipped itself with the tool of the NAM (New Multimedia Archive), a web portal, through which it is possible to consult the video and photographic documentation of the activities promoted by the Academy.
Academic Gallery
Part of the academic collections are exhibited in the Gallery – located on the third and top floor of Palazzo Carpegna. Other works are located in the academic rooms, in the secretariat offices, in the conference room, located on the main floor, as well as in the Academic Library, in the Sarti Library and in the Historical Archive which are located on the second floor. The rest of the collections are kept in deposits located on the ground floor or along the helical ramp.
In October 2010 the Gallery, renovated according to a museum exhibition project developed by Angela Cipriani, Marisa Dalai Emiliani, Pia Vivarelli (who disappeared in 2008) as Superintendents of the Gallery and the Academic Collections, reopened to the public in almost all of its rooms.
The new layout was designed, in collaboration with the academic architect Francesco Cellini, following the most up-to-date criteria, that is, using the same exhibition order to immediately and effectively return the idea of the Academy itself over the centuries.
The restoration of the works of painting and sculpture, made necessary by the long past period of storage of the works, entrusted to the care of Fabio Porzio, was joined by the now usual research laboratory on restoration methods, always directed by Fabio Porzio, particularly interesting. for the variety of materials and therefore the richness of the relative problems. We also proceeded to reread the archival documents, in order to reconstruct the historical and current consistency of the academic collections.
Libraries
In the historic headquarters of Palazzo Carpegna the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca houses two ancient and prestigious art libraries, the Academic Library and the municipal library Romana Sarti, different in history and administrative nature but today substantially connected in a single service that offers scholars and students a heritage of over 50,000 volumes, including works from the past and current events in the field of painting, sculpture and architecture, accompanied by periodic publications relating to the Fine Arts. In particular, the ancient bibliographic funds allow specialist research on printed sources, period originals and manuscripts, a natural complement to the documentation kept in the Academy’s Historical Archive. With regard to the modern, critical studies on the “sister” arts (painting, sculpture, architecture) in Italy and abroad prevail, and the intellectual and artistic publicity of today’s academics, in line with the nature of the institute,