The French Academy in Rome (french: Académie de France à Rome) is an

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

located in the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...

, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

History

The Academy was founded at the

Palazzo Capranica The Teatro Capranica is a theatre situated at 101 Piazza Capranica in the Colonna district of Rome. Originally constructed in 1679 by the Capranica family and housed in the early Renaissance Palazzo Capranica, it was the second public theatre to o ...

in 1666 by

Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...

under the direction of

Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (; 29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683) was a French statesman who served as First Minister of State from 1661 until his death in 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His lasting impact on the organization of the country ...

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French painter, physiognomist, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. As court painter to Louis XIV, who declared him "the greatest French artist of ...

and

Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

. The Academy was from the 17th to 19th centuries the culmination of study for select French artists who, having won the prestigious

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

(Rome Prize), were honored with a 3, 4 or 5-year scholarship (depending on the art discipline they followed) in the Eternal City for the purpose of the study of art and architecture. Such scholars were and are known as ''pensionnaires de l'Académie'' (Academy pensioners). One recipient of the scholarship in the 17th century was

Pierre Le Gros the Younger Pierre Le Gros (12 April 1666 Paris – 3 May 1719 Rome) was a French sculptor, active almost exclusively in Baroque Rome where he was the pre-eminent sculptor for nearly two decades.Gerhard Bissell, ''Pierre le Gros, 1666–1719'', Reading ...

. The Academy was housed in the Palazzo Capranica until 1737, and then in the

Palazzo Mancini The Palazzo Mancini is a palazzo in Rome, Italy.Guerci, M. (2011) ''Palazzo Mancini''. Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Rome, 320 pp. From 1737 to 1793 it was the second home of the French Academy in Rome. It is located on Via del Cor ...

from 1737 to 1793. In 1803

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

moved it to the Villa Medici, with the intention of perpetuating an institution once threatened by the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

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. Portrait of Merry-Joseph Blondel

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

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative ...

then to

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissemen ...

until 1945. The competition and Prix de Rome were eliminated in 1968 by

André Malraux Georges André Malraux ( , ; 3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, art theorist, and Minister of Culture (France), minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel ''La Condition Humaine'' (Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Go ...

(the last Grand Prix for architecture came to an end as early as 1967, the events of 1968 preventing its continuation). The

Académie des Beaux-Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

in Paris and the

Institut de France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institut ...

then lost their guardianship of the Villa Medici to the Ministry of the Culture and the State. From that time on, the boarders no longer belonged solely to the traditional disciplines (painting, sculpture, architecture, medal-engraving, precious-stone engraving, musical composition) but also to new or previously neglected artistic fields (art history, archaeology, literature, stagecraft, photography, movies, video, restoration,

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

and even cookery). These artists-in-residence are known as ''pensionnaires.'' The French word ‘pension’ refers to the room & board these, generally young and promising, artists receive. The artists are no longer recruited by a competition but by application, and their stays vary from six to eighteen months and even, more rarely, two years. Between 1961 and 1967, the artist

Balthus Balthasar Klossowski de Rola (February 29, 1908 – February 18, 2001), known as Balthus, was a Polish-French modern artist. He is known for his erotically charged images of pubescent girls, but also for the refined, dreamlike quality of his image ...

, 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. 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.

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 Charles-Joseph Natoire (3 March 1700 – 23 August 1777) was a French painter in the Rococo manner, a pupil of François Lemoyne and director of the French Academy in Rome, 1751–1775. Considered during his lifetime the equal of François Bouch ...

* 1775 :

Noël Hallé Noël Hallé (2 September 1711, Paris – 5 June 1781, Paris) was a French painter, draftsman and printmaker. He was born into a family of artists, the son of Claude-Guy Hallé. Hallé took the Prix de Rome in 1736. He studied at the Fren ...

* 1775-1781: Joseph-Marie Vien * 1781-1787: Louis Jean François Lagrenée * 1787-1792: François-Guillaume Ménageot * 1792-1807:

Joseph-Benoît Suvée Joseph-Benoît Suvée (3 January 1743 – 9 February 1807) was a Flemish painter strongly influenced by French neo-classicism. Biography Suvée was born in Bruges. Initially a pupil of Matthias de Visch, he came to France aged 19 and bec ...

* 1807 : Pierre-Adrien Pâris * 1807-1816: Guillaume Guillon Lethière * 1816-1823:

Charles Thévenin Charles Thévenin (12 July 1764 – 28 February 1838) was a neoclassical French painter, known for heroic scenes from the time of the French Revolution and First French Empire. Biography Born in Paris, the son of a court architect, Charles studi ...

* 1823-1828:

Pierre-Narcisse Guérin Pierre-Narcisse, baron Guérin (13 March 1774 – 6 July 1833) was a French painter born in Paris. Background A pupil of Jean-Baptiste Regnault, he carried off one of the three ''grands prix'' offered in 1796, in consequence of the competitio ...

* 1829-1834:

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 178917 January 1863), more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects. Biography Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famous painter, who w ...

* 1835-1840:

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ...

* 1841-1846: Jean-Victor Schnetz * 1847-1852:

Jean Alaux Jean Alaux, called "''le Romain''" ("the Roman"), (1786 – 2 March 1864) was a French history painter and Director of the French Academy in Rome from 1846 to 1852.

* 1853-1866: Jean-Victor Schnetz * 1866-1867: Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury * 1867-1873:

Ernest Hébert Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert (3 November 1817 – 5 December 1908) was a French academic painter. Biography Hébert was born in Grenoble, son of a notary in Grenoble, and moved in 1835 to Paris to study law. He simultaneously took art ...

* 1873-1878: Jules Eugène Lenepveu * 1879-1884: Louis-Nicolas Cabat * 1885-1890:

* 1891-1904: Jean-Baptiste-Claude-Eugène Guillaume * 1905-1910: Charles-Emile-Auguste Durand, a.k.a.

Carolus-Duran Charles Auguste Émile Durand, known as Carolus-Duran (Lille 4 July 1837 – 17 February 1917 Paris), was a French painter and art instructor. He is noted for his stylish depictions of members of high society in Third Republic France. Biograph ...

* 1913-1921: Albert Besnard * 1921-1933:

Denys Puech Denys Puech (3 December 1854, Gavernac, Bozouls, Aveyron – December 1942, Rodez, Aveyron) was a French sculptor. Biography From a family of farmers (his brother was Louis Puech, Député for the Seine Department from 1898 to 1932, and Mini ...

* 1933-1937: Paul-Maximilien Landowski * 1937-1960:

Jacques Ibert Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert (15 August 1890 – 5 February 1962) was a French composer of classical music. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his firs ...

* 1961-1977: Comte Balthazar Klossowski de Rola, a.k.a.

* 1979-1985: Jean Leymarie * 1985-1994:

Jean-Marie Drot Jean-Marie Drot (2 March 1929 – 23 September 2015) was a French writer and documentary maker. Biography Drot was born in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle. He was the director of the French Academy in Rome from 1985 to 1994. Drot and Giovanni Pierac ...

* 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

Notes

External links

*
Google Map
{{DEFAULTSORT:French Academy In Rome Art schools in Italy French art Foreign academies in Rome 1666 establishments in the Papal States

History

List of directors

See also

Notes

External links