Editing Academic art (section)

==Origins and theoretical foundations==

===The first art academies in Renaissance Italy===
[[File:Zucchi, Jacopo - Vasari, Giorgio - Uffizi ICCD.jpg|thumb|[[Giorgio Vasari]] helped found the [[Accademia delle Arti del Disegno|Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno]] (Academy and Company for the Arts of Drawing) in 1563]]

The first academy of art was founded in [[Florence]] by [[Cosimo I de' Medici]], on 13 January 1563, under the influence of the architect [[Giorgio Vasari]], who called it the [[Accademia delle Arti del Disegno|Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno]] (Academy and Company for the Arts of Drawing) as it was divided in two different operative branches. While the company was a kind of corporation that every working artist in Tuscany could join, the academy comprised only the most eminent artists of Cosimo's court, and had the task of overseeing all Florentine artistic activities, including teaching, and safeguarding local cultural traditions. Among the founding members were [[Michelangelo]], [[Bartolomeo Ammannati]], [[Agnolo Bronzino]] and [[Francesco da Sangallo]]. In this institution, students learned the "arti del disegno" (a term coined by Vasari) and heard lectures on [[anatomy]] and [[geometry]].<ref>[http://www.librari.beniculturali.it/opencms/opencms/it/istculturali/istituti/istituto_172.html 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.</ref><ref>[[Gauvin Alexander Bailey]], ''Santi di Tito and the Florentine Academy: Solomon Building the Temple in the Capitolo of the Accademia del Disegno (1570–71)'', Apollo CLV, 480 (February 2002): {{p.|31–39}}</ref><ref>Adorno, Francesco. (1983). ''Accademie e istituzioni culturali a Firenze'' {{in lang|it}}. Florence: Olschki.</ref> The Accademia's fame spread quickly, to the point that, within just five months of its founding, important [[Venice|Venetian]] artists such as [[Titian]], [[Francesco Salviati (painter)|Salviati]], [[Tintoretto]] and [[Palladio]] applied for admission, and in 1567, King [[Philip II of Spain]] consulted it about plans for [[El Escorial]].<ref>Pevsner, Nikolaus. ''Academies of Art: Past and Present''. The University Press, 1940. {{p.|110–111}}</ref>

Another academy, the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma (Academy of Painters and Sculptors of Rome), better known as the [[Accademia di San Luca]] (named after the patron saint of painters, [[St. Luke]]), was founded about a decade later in [[Rome]]. It served an educational function and was more concerned with [[art theory]] than the Florentine one, attaching great importance to attending theoretical lectures, debates and drawing classes.<ref>Carl Goldstein (1996). ''Teaching Art: Academies and Schools from Vasari to Albers''. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-55988-X}}.</ref> Twelve academics were immediately appointed as teachers, establishing a series of disciplinary measures for studies and instituting a system of awards for the most capable students.<ref>Pevsner, Nikolaus. ''Academies of Art: Past and Present''. The University Press, 1940. {{p.|118–119}}</ref>

In 1582, the painter and art instructor [[Annibale Carracci]] opened his very influential [[Accademia degli Incamminati|Accademia dei Desiderosi]] (Academy of the Desirous) in [[Bologna]] without official support; in some ways, this was more like a traditional artist's studio, but that he felt the need to label it as an "academy" demonstrates the attraction of the idea at the time.<ref>Claudio Strinati, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=--0ckszMavAC&dq=incamminati+accademia+carracci&pg=PA8 Annibale Carracci]'' {{in lang|it}}, Firenze, Giunti Editore, 2001 {{ISBN|88-09-02051-0}}</ref>

[[File:Academic students.jpg|thumb|left|[[Carlo Maratti]], ''The Academy of Drawing'', {{circa|1704–1709}}. An allegory of academic teaching dedicated "to young students of drawing".]]

The emergence of art academies in the 16th century was due to the need to respond to new social demands. Several states, which were moving towards [[Absolutism (European history)|absolutism]], realized that it was necessary to create an art that specifically identified them and served as a symbol of civic unity, and was also capable of symbolically consolidating the status of their rulers. In this process, the [[Catholic Church]], then the greatest political force and social unifier in Europe, began to lose some of its influence as a result of the greater [[secularization]] of societies. [[Sacred art]], by far the largest field of artistic expression throughout the [[Middle Ages]], came to coexist with an expanding profane art, derived from [[Classical Antiquity|classical]] sources, which had been experiencing a slow revival since the 12th century, and which, by the time of the [[Renaissance]], had been established as the most prestigious cultural reference and model of quality.<ref>Duro, Paul. ''Academic Theory: 1550-1800''. In Smith, Paul & Wilde, Carolyn. ''A companion to art theory''. Wiley-Blackwell, 2002. {{p.|89–90}}</ref><ref>Tanner, Jeremy. ''The sociology of art: a reader''. Routledge, 2003. {{p.|4}}</ref>

This re-emergence of [[classicism]] required artists to become more cultured, in order to competently transpose this reference to the [[visual arts]]. At the same time, the old system of artistic production, organized by [[guild]]s—class associations of an artisanal nature, linked more to mechanical crafts than to intellectual erudition—began to be seen as outdated and socially unworthy, as artists began to desire equality with the intellectual versed in the [[liberal art]]s, since art itself began to be seen not only as a technical task, as it had been for centuries, but mainly as a way of acquiring and transmitting knowledge. In this new context, painting and sculpture began to be seen as theorizable, just as other arts such as literature and especially poetry were already. However, if on the one hand the artists did rise socially, on the other they lost the security of market insertion that the guild system provided, having to live in the uncertain expectation of individual protection by some [[Patronage|patron]].<ref>Pevsner, Nikolaus. ''Academies of Art: Past and Present''. The University Press, 1940. {{p.|97–98}}</ref>

===Standardization: French academicism and visual arts===
[[File:Charles Le Brun 001.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Charles Le Brun]], ''Apotheosis of Louis XIV'', 1677. An example of art at the service of the State.]]

If Italy was to be credited with founding this new type of institution, France was responsible for taking the model to a first stage of great order and stability. The country's first attempts to establish academies like the Italian ones also took place in the 16th century, during the reign of King [[Henry III of France|Henry III]], especially through the work of the poet [[Jean-Antoine de Baïf]], who founded an academy linked to the [[List of French monarchs|French Crown]]. Like its Italian counterparts, it was primarily [[Philology|philological]]-[[Philosophy|philosophical]] in nature, but it also worked on concepts relating to the arts and sciences. Although it developed intense activity with regular debates and theoretical production, defending classical principles, it lacked an educational structure and had a brief existence.<ref>Yates, Frances Amelia. ''The French academies of the sixteenth century''. Taylor & Francis, 1988. {{p.|140–140, 275–279}}</ref>

The Accademia di San Luca later served as the model for the French [[Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture]] (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture), founded in 1648 by a group of artists led by [[Charles Le Brun]], and which later became the {{Lang|fr|[[Académie des Beaux-Arts]]|italic=no}} (Academy of Fine Arts). Its objective was similar to the Italian one, to honor artists "who were gentlemen practicing a liberal art" from craftsmen, who were engaged in manual labor. This emphasis on the intellectual component of artmaking had a considerable impact on the subjects and styles of academic art.{{sfn|Testelin|1853|p=22–36}}{{sfn|Montaiglon|Cornu|1875|p=7–10}}{{sfn|Dussieux|Soulié|Mantz|Montaiglon|1854|p=216}}

After an ineffective start, the Académie royale was reorganized in 1661 by King [[Louis XIV]], whose aim was to control all the country's artistic activity,<ref>[[Janson, H.W.]] (1995). ''History of Art'', 5th edition, revised and expanded by Anthony F. Janson. London: Thames & Hudson. {{ISBN|0500237018}}</ref> and in 1671, it came under the control of [[Chief minister of France|First Minister of State]] [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]], who confirmed Le Brun as director. Together, they made it the main executive arm of a program to glorify the king's [[Absolute monarchy|absolutist monarchy]], definitively establishing the school's association with the State and thereby vesting it with enormous directive power over the entire national art system, which contributed to making France the new European cultural center, displacing the hitherto Italian supremacy. But while for the Italian Renaissance, art was also a survey of the natural world, for Le Brun it was above all the product of an acquired culture, inherited forms and an established tradition.<ref name="Barasch">Barasch, Moshe. [https://books.google.com/books?id=n07eWPU1RnAC&dq=%22academic+art%22&pg=PA316 ''Theories of Art: From Plato to Winckelmann'']. Routledge, 2000. {{p.|330–333}}</ref><ref>Schwarcz, Lilia Moritz. ''O Sol do Brasil: Nicolas-Antoine Taunay e as desventuras dos artistas franceses na corte de d. João'' {{in lang|pt}}. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2008. {{p.|65–66}}</ref>

During this period, academic doctrine reached the peak of its rigor, comprehensiveness, uniformity, formalism and explicitness, and according to art historian Moshe Barasch, at no other time in the history of [[Theory of art|art theory]] has the idea of perfection been more intensely cultivated as the artist's highest goal, with the production of the Italian [[High Renaissance]] as the ultimate model. Thus, Italy continued to be an invaluable reference, so much so that a branch was established in Rome in 1666, the [[French Academy in Rome|French Academy]], with [[Charles Errard]] as its first director.<ref name="Barasch" />

At the same time, a controversy occurred among the members of the Académie, which would come to dominate artistic attitudes for the rest of the century. This "battle of styles" was a conflict over whether [[Peter Paul Rubens]] or [[Nicolas Poussin]] was a suitable model to follow. Followers of Poussin, called "poussinistes", argued that line (disegno) should dominate art, because of its appeal to the intellect, while followers of Rubens, called "rubenistes", argued that color (colore) should be the dominant feature, because of its appeal to emotion.<ref>Driskel, Michael Paul. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8-Y-U7gjhxsC&dq=%22academic+art%22&pg=PA41 ''Representing belief: religion, art, and society in nineteenth-century France, Volume 1991'']. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992. {{p.|47–49}}</ref> The debate was revived in the early 19th century, under the movements of [[Neoclassicism]] typified by the art of [[Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres]], and [[Romanticism]] typified by the artwork of [[Eugène Delacroix]]. Debates also occurred over whether it was better to learn art by looking at nature, or at the artistic masters of the past.<ref name="Tanner, Jeremy 2003">Tanner, Jeremy. ''The sociology of art: a reader''. Routledge, 2003. {{p.|5}}</ref>

===Transformations and diffusion of the French model===
[[File:Wilhelm Bendz - The Life Class at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, 1826.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Wilhelm Bendz]], ''The Life Class at the [[Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts|Royal Academy of Fine Arts]]'' in [[Copenhagen]], 1826]]

At the end of Louis XIV's reign, the academic style and teachings strongly associated with his monarchy began to spread throughout Europe, accompanying the growth of the urban nobility. A series of other important academies were formed across the continent, inspired by the success of the French Académie: the [[Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg|Akademie der Bildenden Künste]] in [[Nuremberg]] (1662), the [[Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp)|Royal Academy of Fine Arts]]  in [[Antwerp]] (1663), the [[Academy of Arts, Berlin|Akademie der Künste]] in [[Berlin]] (1696), the [[Academy of Fine Arts Vienna|Akademie der bildenden Künste]] in [[Vienna]] (1698), the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts|Royal Drawing Academy]] in [[Stockholm]] (1735), the [[Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando]] in [[Madrid]] (1752), the [[Imperial Academy of Arts]] in [[Saint Petersburg]] (1757), and the [[Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera]] in [[Milan]] (1776), to name a few. In England, this was the [[Royal Academy of Arts]], which was founded in 1768 with a mission "to establish a school or academy of design for the use of students in the arts".{{sfn|Hodgson|Eaton|1905|p=11}}<ref>''John Harris'', Sir William Chambers Knight of the Polar Star, ''Chapter 11: The Royal Academy'', 1970, A. Zwemmer Ltd</ref>

The [[Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts]] in [[Copenhagen]], founded in 1754, may be taken as a successful example in a smaller country, which achieved its aim of producing a national school and reducing the reliance on imported artists. The painters of the [[Danish Golden Age]] of roughly 1800–1850 were nearly all trained there, and drawing on Italian and [[Dutch Golden Age painting]]s as examples, many returned to teach locally.<ref>J. Wadum, M. Scharff, K. Monrad, "Hidden Drawings from the Danish Golden Age. Drawing and underdrawing in Danish Golden Age views from Italy" in ''SMK Art Journal'' 2006, ed. Peter Nørgaard Larsen. [[Statens Museum for Kunst]], 2007.</ref> The history of [[Danish art]] is much less marked by tension between academic art and other styles than is the case in other countries.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the model expanded to America, with the [[Academy of San Carlos]] in Mexico being founded in 1783, the [[Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts]] in the United States in 1805,<ref name="kemp">Kemp, Martín. [https://books.google.com/books?id=95J-ppmZmt8C&dq=%22academic+art%22&pg=PA218 ''The Oxford history of Western art'']. Oxford University Press US, 2000, {{p.|218–219}}</ref> and the [[Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (Brazil)|Imperial Academy of Fine Arts]] in Brazil in 1826.<ref>Eulálio, Alexandre. ''O Século XIX''. In ''Tradição e Ruptura''. Síntese de Arte e Cultura Brasileiras. São Paulo: Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 1984–85, {{p.|121}}</ref> Meanwhile, back in Italy, another major center of irradiation appeared, Venice, launching the tradition of urban views and "[[Capriccio (art)|capriccio]]s", fantasy landscape scenes populated by ancient ruins, which became favorites of noble travelers on the [[Grand Tour]].<ref name="kemp" />