The Accademia di Belle Arti di Perugia ("Academy of Fine Arts of Perugia") is a private

tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

academy of art in

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part o ...

, in

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

in central Italy. It is not one of the 20 official Italian state academies of fine art, but is legally recognised by the

Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca The Ministry of Education, University and Research (in it, Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, italic=no or MIUR) is the ministry of the Italian government for the national education system, the Italian universities and ...

, the Italian ministry of education and research, which gives its full name as Accademia di Belle Arti Legalmente Riconosciuta di Perugia "Pietro Vannucci". The academy became an autonomous degree-awarding institution under law no. 508 dated 21 December 1999.

History

The school was founded in 1573, and was initially named l’Accademia del Disegno (English: The Academy of Drawing). The school was established on the initiative of the painter

Orazio Alfani Orazio Alfani (c. 1510 – 1583) was an Italian Painting, painter of the Renaissance period, active in both Palermo and Perugia. He is sometimes referred to as Orazio di Domenico or di Paris Alfani. Born near Perugia, he first trained with hi ...

and the architect and mathematician

Raffaello Sozi Raffaello, Raffaele or Raffaellino is an Italian given name. It usually refers to Raphael (a.k.a. Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino), an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. Raffaello may also refer to: * Raffaello (confection), a confe ...

, and is among the oldest institutions of its kind in Italy; the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze ("academy of fine arts of Florence") is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy. It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. ...

had been established eleven years earlier. The school occupies the former

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

of the San Francesco al Prato. There were many notable faculty, including

Tommaso Minardi Tommaso Minardi (December 4, 1787 – January 12, 1871) was an Italian painter and author on art theory, active in Faenza, Rome, Perugia, and other towns. He painted in styles that transitioned from Neoclassicism to Romanticism. Biography Mi ...

(from 1819 until 1822), and

Silvestro Valeri Silvestro Valeri (Rome, December 31, 1814 –1902) was an Italian painter and educator. He taught at Accademia di Belle Arti di Perugia. Biography As a young man, he was enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts of St Luke in Rome. By his second year ...

(from 1845 until 1873). Students from the school included

Annibale Brugnoli Annibale Brugnoli (22 February 1843 – 11 December 1915) was an Italian painter, mainly of genre and historical pieces, in oil and fresco. Biography He was born in Perugia, where he initially studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Perugia unde ...

Library, archive, and collections

The Royal Academy has an important collection of books, archives which include a gallery of over 600 plaster casts, and works of art accessible for research and display. In 1573 the same year as the school's founding, plaster casts that had been taken from

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

's original sculptures at the Medici Chapel and donated to the school by

Vincenzo Danti Vincenzo Danti (1530 – 26 May 1576) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Perugia. His father was an architect and goldsmith, and Vincenzo developed an interest in drawing and goldsmithing. In 1545 he went to Rome to study sculpture and ...

. Other plaster casts in the gallery include works by

Antonio Canova Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was inspired by the Baroque and the cl ...

and

Bertel Thorvaldsen Bertel Thorvaldsen (; 19 November 1770 – 24 March 1844) was a Danes, Danish and Icelanders, Icelandic Sculpture, sculptor medallist, medalist of international fame, who spent most of his life (1797–1838) in Italy. Thorvaldsen was born in ...

. Paintings in the archives include works by Mariano Guardabassi, Annibale Brugnoli,

Domenico Bruschi Domenico Bruschi (13 June 1840 – 19 October 1910) was an Italian painter and educator. Bruschi also designed tapestries, Renaissance revival wooden furniture, sculptures in stucco and stained glass windows. Bruschi served as the chair of Orname ...

, Armando Spadini, Gerardo Dottori,

Mario Mafai Mario Mafai (12 February 1902 – 31 March 1965) was an Italian painter. With his wife Antonietta Raphaël he founded the modern art movement called the Scuola Romana, or Roman school. Biography Mafai left school very early, preferring to att ...

Alberto Burri Alberto Burri (12 March 191513 February 1995; ) was an Italian visual artist, painter, sculptor, and physician based in Città di Castello. He is associated with the matterism of the European informal art movement and described his style as ...

, among others.

References

{{authority control Art schools in Italy 1573 establishments in Italy Educational institutions established in the 1570s