Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze

"Florentine Academy" redirects here. For other uses, see Florentine Academy (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Accademia delle Arti del Disegno.

For the Accademia art gallery in Florence, see Galleria dell'Accademia.

The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (lit. 'academy of fine arts of Florence') is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy.

Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze

The Accademia di Belle Arti seen from Piazza San Marco
Type	Academy of fine arts
Established	1563; 461 years ago (1563) 1784 (combination)
President	Carlo Sisi
Director	Claudio Rocca
Students	more than 1200
Location	Florence , Tuscany , Italy 43.7775°N 11.2592°E / 43.7775; 11.2592
Website	accademia.firenze.it

It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. Michelangelo, Benvenuto Cellini and other significant artists have been associated with it.

Like other state art academies in Italy, it became an autonomous degree-awarding institution under law no. 508 dated 21 December 1999,^[1] and falls under the administration of the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, the Italian ministry of education and research.^[2]

The adjacent (but unaffiliated) Galleria dell'Accademia houses the original David by Michelangelo.

History

The Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno, or "academy and company of the arts of drawing", was founded on 13 January 1563 by Cosimo I de' Medici, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari.^[3] It was made up of two parts: the company was a kind of guild for all working artists, while the academy was a more select group of artists responsible for supervision of artistic production in the Medici state.^[3] At first, the academy met in the cloisters of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata.^[4]

Artists including Michelangelo Buonarroti, Lazzaro Donati, Francesco da Sangallo, Agnolo Bronzino, Benvenuto Cellini, Giorgio Vasari, Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, Bartolomeo Ammannati, and Giambologna were members. Most members of the Accademia were male. Artemisia Gentileschi was the first woman to be admitted; Angelika Kauffmann became a member in 1762.^[5]: 481 The Accademia awarded Marianne Sessi a gold medal in 1807.^[6]

In 1784 Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, combined all the schools of drawing in Florence into one institution, the new Accademia di Belle Arti, or academy of fine arts. It was housed in a former convent in via Ricasoli, premises which it still occupies.^[7]

In 1873 the Accademia was divided into two separate bodies: the teaching institution, the Accademia di Belle Arti; and the college of academicians, which was named the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno.^[3]

The Galleria dell'Accademia

Main article: Galleria dell'Accademia

The Galleria dell'Accademia was founded in 1784; it adjoins the Accademia di Belle Arti in via Ricasoli, but is otherwise unconnected with it. It has housed the original David by Michelangelo since 1873.^[8]

See also

• List of academies of fine art in Italy

References

1. Legge 21 dicembre 1999, n.508: Riforma delle Accademie di belle arti, dell'Accademia nazionale di danza, dell'Accademia nazionale di arte drammatica, degli Istituti superiori per le industrie artistiche, dei Conservatori di musica e degli Istituti musicali pareggiati. (in Italian). Gazzetta Ufficiale, 4 gennaio 2000 n.2. Archived 1 October 2011.
2. Accademie di belle arti (in Italian). Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca: AFAM – Alta Formazione Artistica, Musicale e Coreutica. Accessed May 2015.
3. Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (in Italian). Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo: Direzione Generale per le Biblioteche, gli Istituti Culturali e il Diritto d'Autore. Accessed October 2014.
4. Francesco Adorno (1983). Accademie e istituzioni culturali a Firenze (in Italian). Firenze: Olschki.
5. Wendy Wassyng Roworth (Spring 2004). Documenting Angelica Kauffman's Life and Art (review). Eighteenth-Century Studies 37 (3): 478–482. doi:10.1353/ecs.2004.0031. (subscription required).
6. Mendel (1880). Musikalisches Konversationslexikon: eine Encyklopedie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften für Gebildete aller Stände (in German).
7. Z. Wazbinski (1987). L'Accademia medicea del Disegno a Firenze nel Cinquecento (in Italian). Firenze: Olschki.
8. Ragsdale, J. Donald (2020). Western European Museums and Visual Persuasion: Art, Edifice, and Social Influence. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-5275-5669-0.