French Academy in Rome
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Established | 1666 |
---|---|
Location | Rome, Italy |
Type | Academy |
President | Sam Stourdzé (2020-present) |
Website | Official website |
The French Academy in Rome (
.History
The Academy was founded at the
The Academy was housed in the Palazzo Capranica until 1737, and then in the Palazzo Mancini from 1737 to 1793. The Scottish artists Alexander Clerk, Allan Ramsay and Alexander Cunyngham enrolled as day students at the Academy during this period.[1] In 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte moved it to the Villa Medici, with the intention of perpetuating an institution once threatened by the French Revolution and, thus, of retaining for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of the Antiquity or the Renaissance and send back to Paris their "envois de Rome", the results of the inspiration they had gained in Rome. These "envois" were annual works, sent to Paris to be judged, and were a compulsory requirement for all the pensionaries.
At first, the villa and its gardens were in a sad state and had to be renovated to house the winners of the Prix de Rome. The competition was interrupted during the first World War, and Mussolini confiscated the villa in 1941, forcing the academy of France in Rome to withdraw to
Between 1961 and 1967, the artist Balthus, then at the head of the Academy, carried out a vast restoration campaign of the palace and its gardens, providing them with modern equipment. Balthus participated "hands on" in all the phases of the construction. Where the historic décor had disappeared, Balthus proposed personal alternatives. He invented a décor that was a homage to the past and, at the same time, radically contemporary: The mysterious melancholic decor he created for Villa Medici has become, in turn, historic and was undergoing an important restoration campaign in 2016.[4] Work continued under the direction of director, Richard Peduzzi, and the Villa Medici resumed organizing exhibitions and shows created by its artists in residence.
Under director Frédéric Mitterrand the Academy opened up its guest rooms to the general public at times when they are not used by pensionnaires or other official guests.[5]
List of directors
Many famous artists have been director of the Academy:
- 1666-1672: Charles Errard
- 1673-1675: Noël Coypel
- 1675-1684: Charles Errard
- 1684-1699: Matthieu de La Teullière
- 1699-1704: René-Antoine Houasse
- 1704-1725: Charles-François Poerson
- 1725-1737: Nicolas Vleughels
- 1737-1738: Pierre de L'Estache
- 1738-1751: Jean-François de Troy
- 1751-1775: Charles-Joseph Natoire
- 1775 : Noël Hallé
- 1775-1781: Joseph-Marie Vien
- 1781-1787: Louis Jean François Lagrenée
- 1787-1792: François-Guillaume Ménageot
- 1792-1807: Joseph-Benoît Suvée
- 1807 : Pierre-Adrien Pâris
- 1807-1816: Guillaume Guillon Lethière
- 1816-1823: Charles Thévenin
- 1823-1828: Pierre-Narcisse Guérin
- 1829-1834: Horace Vernet
- 1835-1840: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
- 1841-1846: Jean-Victor Schnetz
- 1847-1852: Jean Alaux
- 1853-1866: Jean-Victor Schnetz
- 1866-1867: Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury
- 1867-1873: Ernest Hébert
- 1873-1878: Jules Eugène Lenepveu
- 1879-1884: Louis-Nicolas Cabat
- 1885-1890: Ernest Hébert
- 1891-1904: Jean-Baptiste-Claude-Eugène Guillaume
- 1905-1910: Charles-Emile-Auguste Durand, a.k.a. Carolus-Duran
- 1913-1921: Albert Besnard
- 1921-1933: Denys Puech
- 1933-1937: Paul-Maximilien Landowski
- 1937-1960: Jacques Ibert
- 1961-1977: Comte Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, a.k.a. Balthus
- 1979-1985: Jean Leymarie
- 1985-1994: Jean-Marie Drot
- 1994-1997: Pierre-Jean Angremy, a.k.a. Pierre-Jean Rémy
- 1997-2002: Bruno Racine
- 2002-2008: Richard Peduzzi
- 2008-2009: Frédéric Mitterrand
- 2009–2015: Eric de Chassey
- 2015–2018: Muriel Mayette-Holtz
- 2020–present: Sam Stourdzé
See also
Notes
- National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 27
- ^ Malraux had already once envisioned, unsuccessfully, the suppression of the Prix de Rome competition in 1962.
- ^ The Institut de France reacted against this as early as 1975, while organizing each year the competition for the Académie des Beaux-Arts's Grand Prix of Architecture that still exists today.
- ^ "Villa medici". www.villamedici.it.
- ^ "Italy: The Villa Medici B&B- the poshest Bed & Breakfast in Rome". www.minorsights.com.