The Fine Arts Academy of Bologna
1. Its history, between the past and the present
3. The artistic and historical background
1. Its history, from the past to the present
The teaching of the artistic disciplines in Bologna dates back to the Carracci's who first founded the Accademia dei Desiderosi (1582) and then that of the Incamminati (1590), where drawing from the nude and from ancient statuary models was done, anatomy studied, besides practising architecture and perspective. After the decline of the Carracci school, there were numerous attempts to rebuild an artistic teaching in Bologna.
In 1706, a group of painters headed by Giampietro Zanotti, gathering at Palazzo Fava, set up an Academy which, with the support of the pontifical general Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, was joined to the Istituto delle Scienze (1710). Once the statute was ratified by Pope Clement XI in 1711, the Academy was named Clementine and was established at Palazzo Poggi, comprising forty masters, amongst whom Carlo Cignani e Donato Creti. In 1717 the scenographer Ferdinando Galli Bibiena joined as a teacher and, subsequently so did Giuseppe Galli Bibiena (1721), and Francesco Galli Bibiena (1727). During the eighteenth century other celebrated artists belonged to the Academy such as Vittorio Bigari, Ercole Lelli, Angelo Venturoli, Gaetano Gandolfi and Francesco Rosaspina. The students were trained in painting, sculpting and architecture; so as to encourage study a number of awards were introduced (Marsili-Aldrovandi, Fiori and Curlandia) to be assigned to the deserving young artists.
As a result of the Napoleonic occupation the Clementine Academy was suppressed, but in September 1802 the National Fine Arts Academy of Bologna was founded. The Academy then moved to another location at the ex-Jesuit College where it is still today in Via delle Belle Arti, according to a metropolitan plan that foresaw the concentration of higher studies in a single part of the city. The taught subjects were increased (Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, Perspective, Ornamentation, Figure-drawing, Engraving and Anatomy, besides the School of the Nude). In those years new awards were created, while still maintaining the Curlandesi awards: First Class Awards for the artists, Second Class Awards for the school students and 'artistic pensions' were established in Rome. Each year as the awards were given, a public exhibition was prepared for the works of the winning students, as well as for artists, professors, amateurs and connoisseurs; it was a moment that amounted to an important event in Bolognese artistic life. For the Academies teaching activities, for the benefit of scholars and as an ornament to the city, the school was endowed with a collection of paintings.
In 1815 upon the return of the pontifical rule, the teaching structure of the school, named the Accademia Pontificia di Belle Arti, remained unchanged. Only after the unification of Italy (1860) was the organisation of the studies innovated by dividing the teaching into "Elementary" (Ornate Drawing, Figure Drawing, Architecture Drawing and Perspective and preparatory study for Sculpting) and "Superior" (Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Ornate, Decoration, Perspective, Scenography, Landscape Painting and Engraving), together with "Subsidiary Schools" (Design from plaster, Nude, Pictorial Anatomy and History of Art). Following this reform the students of the upper classes of the Academy were put on an equal standing with the University students. In1877 a new Law subdivided artistic instruction into Preparatory (one year), Common (three years) and Special (two years, except for the School of Architecture which lasted four years).
The current curricular organisation dates back to the 1923 Royal Decree which identified in the Academies the superior level of studies in the field of the figurative arts and assigned the teaching of Architecture to the Universities. In the twentieth century the most important 'masters' of the Bologna Fine Arts Academy have been Virgilio Guidi, Ilario Rossi, Giorgio Morandi, Luciano De Vita, Umberto Mastroianni, Quinto Ghermandi, Edoardo Collamarini.
The Fine Arts Academy occupies, together with the National Art Gallery, the complex of the Church of St. Ignatious and the Jesuit Novitiate, built by Alfonso Torregiani between 1728 and 1735. Having abandoned the Clementine site in Palazzo Poggi, the Academy refounded in the Napoleonic era was moved to the convent building, appropriately converted. The Church of St. Ignatious was transformed into the Great Hall of the Academy (the reduction of the dome dates back to 1805). Subsequently, the Collamarini wing was added, while the annexation of the modern rooms of the Art High School is quite recent.
In 1997 new common spaces for the Academy and the Art Gallery were opened in the basement, named 'Fine Arts Halls', which are soon to be added to by more teaching and exhibition areas.
3. The artistic and historical background
The Academy's long tradition has paved the way to a copious artistic and historical fund. The historical library can be consulted upon request (with its 4,000 books it is also a priceless record for studies on modern Italian and local art), as is the Drawings and Prints library, set up partially thanks to norms according to which the works of the students winning the competitions organised by the school in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, had to remain property of the Academy, or else for acquisition or donation.
In the teaching rooms and the common areas plasters and moulds of the plaster cast gallery and countless canvasses are displayed.
In the Fine Arts Hall there is the Academy Museum with paintings, marbles, plasters and drawings drawn from the Academy collections (18th-19th centuries); other works that are already part of the Academy's heritage are at the Council Modern Art Gallery and the National Art Gallery.
From the end of the 6th century BC Bologna was one of the major Etruscan cities of the Po valley called "Felsina", which the Romans later called "Bononia". Under the Roman name, Bologna became a flourishing city and an important road network junction along the Via Aemilia. Following the decline of the Roman Empire it decayed, but in the 5th century AD, under Bishop Petronius, the city was reborn. Shortly after the year 1000, Bologna experienced a moment of economic and cultural prosperity, when a presigious law school, recognised by the Empire, gave birth to the the University of Scholars (1088).Bologna achieved the height of its splendor in the thirteenth century, when it became one of the ten most populated cities in Europe, with a metropolitan development equivalent to that of Paris. In 1249, in a battle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, King Enzo was captured, the son of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, held prisoner in the city until his death. In the 15th century, after bloody internal struggles, Bologna started to lose its full sovereignty, passing under the control of the Visconti, lords of Milan, and the Church of Rome. Later on the lordship of Giovanni Bentivoglio (1463-1509) imposed itself.
Form the 16th to the 18th centuries, Bologna was part of the Papal State, ruled by the Apostolic Delegate and administered by the Senate, the expression fo the local gentry; in 1796, upon the arrival of Napoleon, Bologna became the capital of the Cispadane Republic and subsequently the second city after Milan of the Cisalpine Republic. Having returned to the Pontifical State after the Restoration (1816), the city played an active role in the Risorgimento struggles and in 1859 was annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy.
Today Bologna is an important industrial, financial and commercial pole, also given its central position in the railway and motorway network in the country. Its historic centre, one of the best preserved in Italy, is surrounded by new residential areas; it has a modern trade fair and congress district. Currently Bologna's population is around 340,000 people with 25,000 university students.
The city's geometry is simple: the historic centre is delimited by the tree-lined ring-roads which coincide with the ancient perimeter of the city walls, the construction of which ended in the 14th century. From the centrally positioned Piazza Maggiore streets stretch out that, following a radial design, lead to the outer ring road. A special feature of these streets is due to the existence of the arch-covered pavements, built in medieval times to resolve the problem of lodgings, and today a typical element of the urban design. The most important portico is the one linking the city to the Sanctuary of San Luca, while a refined example of the renaissance style is the Portico dei Servi.Another feature characterising the shape of the city is that of the medieval towers, built during the 13th century by the aristocratic families for reasons of defence and prestige. The most famous are the Garisenda and the adjacent Asinelli, although many others can be traced in the alleyways of the town centre.
· Plan of the city (click to open it)
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