As previously noted, the student competitions at the Accademia di San Luca were reorganized to promote Clement XI’s architectural needs and ambitions (Marconi et al. 1974). Clement’s involvement included the selection of competition themes, many of which were of a purely theoretical nature, whereas others were for actual projects, such as a new facade for San Giovanni in Laterano (1705), or a new sacristy for Saint Peter’s (1711). In an effort to increase and centralize the power of the academy, Clement sanctioned new statutes in 1715, among which the direction of instruction was entrusted strictly to members of the academy. As noted by Christopher Johns (1988: 7), “[t]he net effect was to institutionalize thoroughly the course of instruction and production and to instill the artistic vision of the Accademia while protecting the institution’s economic hegemony.” The academic structure of the institution under Clement XI continued until 1869 (the year before Rome’s annexation by the Kingdom of Italy), with only one major addition, a school for nude figure drawing.
The teaching of architecture at the Accademia di San Luca was based on a system of three levels of escalating difficulty. These levels were referred to as classes (First, Second, and Third), the First Class being the most difficult. The Third Class was usually asked to prepare a measured and rendered drawing of a single architectural element, such as a niche from the nave of San Giovanni in Laterano (1702). The Second Class was often asked to prepare a design for a portion of the First Class subject, for example an altar for the First Class theme of a church with priest’s quarters, college, and hospital (1702). The Second Class was occasionally given a particularly relevant theme, such as a fagade for San Giovanni in Laterano (1705), a project under consideration until 1732, a public fountain (1706) in light of the designs being prepared for the Fontana di Trevi, or a new sacristy for Saint Peter’s (1711), a structure eventually completed between 1776 and 1783 by Carlo Marchionni, the architect of Clement XI’s nephew Alessandro Albani. The First Class was usually asked to design a large building, urban space or master plan. Examples include a papal administrative center and associated offices (1704), an academy of fine arts (1708), a grand piazza (1728), or a fortified city with a port (1732).
To gain entrance into the academy, a student had to be accepted by one of its members. After a certain amount of preliminary study, usually determined by the tutor, the student was encouraged to enter the competitions. The themes of the competition were selected by the academy and written by a senior professor. As already noted, the pope often concerned himself with the selection of themes in an effort to convert the academy into a workshop for his artistic ideas and visions, even if the members judged the competitions. The winning of a first prize in the Third or Second Class propelled the student to the next higher class, whereas winning first prize in the First Class relieved the student from further competitions, admitting him among those considered for election to the academy. To become an elected member of the academy (accademico di merito), the applicant was required to prepare a design of adequate substance and quality that would be donated to the academy for review. Members of the Academy would judge the design and consequently determine the merit of the nominee.
The fine arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture were primarily taught at the Accademia, although other competing schools quickly appeared in order to fill in the gaps left by the Roman academy. As already mentioned, the Neapolitan painter, Sebastiano Conca had apartments for his studio and a small school in the Farnese palace. The departure of the Conca School drove Benedict XIV Lambertini to found the Accademia del Nudo at the Campidoglio (1754) as an arena for students and artists to engage in live figure drawing and painting (Pietrangeli 1962). Tuition at the academy was free, and sessions took place in the evenings under the direction of a member from the Accademia di San Luca. The Accademia del
Nudo was based in a rotunda that had been fitted out by Ferdinando Fuga in 1748 under the Galleria Capitolina dei Quadri, on the side of the Monte Tarpeo. Giovanni Paolo Panini had added another gallery adjacent to Fuga’s in 1752. Figure drawing at the time was limited exclusively to the male body as the papacy prohibited females from modeling in the nude. The Academia del Nudo was the first public academy dedicated to the art of figure drawing and painting, and remained a potent intellectual force in eighteenth-century Roman culture for some fifty years, with such well-known directors as Anton Raffaele Mengs, Pompeo Battoni, and the Spaniards Francisco Preciado de la Vega and Francisco Vergara (ASL 1754). In addition to Italian students, the academy had representatives from all over Europe, including twenty-four from France, twenty from Spain, twenty from Germany, sixteen from Flanders, and fewer numbers from Switzerland, Portugal, England, Poland and Russia (Pietrangeli 1962; MacDonald 1989).
On April 12, 1752, Ferdinand VI signed a Royal decree to form the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid to promote the fine Arts in Spain (Caveda y Nava 1867; Bedat 1989). Placed under the protection of Saint Ferdinand - the monarch’s namesake - the academy was modeled upon the highly esteemed Accademia di San Luca in Rome.9 THe Spanish academy grew out of an informal gathering (tertulia) founded in 1739 by the Turinese sculptor Giovanni Domenico Olivieri (1708-62) who in the following year was appointed sculptor to Philip V (primer escultor del rey). The primary aim of the tertulia was to teach design (disegno, or diseno in Castillian), the concept formed in the artist’s mind that enabled one to apprehend objects and to carry out practical work accordingly, though, for the most part, students were instructed in life drawing, the orders of architecture, arithmetic, gnomonics, and perspective (Marias and Bustamente Garcia 1989). An additional aim of the academy was to familiarize artists, as well as laymen who exhibited an interest in the arts, with the inherent benefits of entering into debate and discussion. With the approval of Philip V, the tertulia started by Olivieri took possession of apartments in the Real Casa de la Panaderia in the Plaza Mayor, and a Preparatory council (Junta preparatoria) was established on May 20, 1744, to serve as a crucial link in the evolution of the new academy (Navarrete Martinez 2007).
The Junta issued a provisional constitution, the Reglas que se proponen al excelentisimo senor Marques de Villartas para que, despues de dos anos de prdctica que parecen convenientes por ahora, puedan contribuir a la formacidn de leyes para la Academia de Escultura, Pintura y Arquitectura que se intenta fundar en Madrid debajo de la proteccion del Rey, which laid the foundation for the future academY.10 From then on classes were taught in the evenings. Olivieri himself selected the various professors, Louis Michel van Loo and Antonio Gonzalez Ruiz in painting, Antoine Dumandre and Juan Bautista de la Pena in sculpture, and Giovanni Battista Sacchetti and Giacomo Pavia in architecture (Bedat 1989: 33).
Though the Reglas stipulated that the Junta preparatoria would exist for only two years, after which it would transform into an official academy, it was not until almost eight years later that the transformation finally occurred. In the meantime, the members of the Junta recognized that simply establishing a presence in Madrid was not enough to transform Spanish architectural culture. The need to establish formal relations with Rome and create pensions for architectural study there was pressing. The Junta formally investigated the idea, and on December 16, 1745, by royal decree, the Junta approved the idea of sending a number of gifted students to Rome (Moleon Gavilanes 2003).11 Six positions were to be awarded, two of which already belonged to Francisco Preciado de la Vega (painting) and Francisco Vergara (sculpture) who had been receiving pensions in Rome since 1740. The Junta held a competition for the remaining four positions which were awarded to the painter Antonio Gonzalez Velazquez (1723-94), the sculptor Francisco Gutierrez (1727-82), and the architects Diego de Villanueva (1713-74), and Alejandro Gonzalez Velazquez (1719-72), who although a painter like his younger brother, was also inclined to architecture. The two architects were quickly plagued by personal problems. First, Alejandro Gonzalez Velazquez declined his pension as his wife had not properly consented to his travels. Consequently Miguel Fernandez (c. 1726-86), a young architecture student in the recently established school of the Junta, was named as his substitute. On January 9, 1747, Miguel Fernandez, Antonio Gonzalez Velazquez, and Francisco Gutierrez set off for Rome. Soon thereafter, Diego de Villanueva refused to depart, as he too was a married man and the likelihood of being separated from his wife was becoming increasingly untenable. Ferdinand VI, unhappy with the situation, consequently decided on May 2, 1747 to award the pension instead to Jose de Hermosilla (1715-76), a military engineer who had been working as a draftsman (delineador) alongside Ventura Rodriguez and Diego de Villanueva in the new Royal Palace in Madrid.
Hermosilla’s appointment, however, was not as straightforward as one might think. As Claude Bedat (1989: 251) pointed out in his history of the academy, the members of the Junta were under the impression that the direction and organization of the academy was ultimately their responsibility, and therefore they were not accustomed to having decisions taken directly by the King. Such an intervention provoked the professors of the Junta, who were already suspicious of the quality of architects they were sending to Rome. Nevertheless, the King had been impressed with Hermosilla’s work at the new Royal Palace, and with the backing of Jose de Carvajal y Lancaster, his first minister, and Fernando Trivino, the vice-protector of the Junta, Hermosilla’s appointment was guaranteed. In this sense it can be said that Miguel Fernandez and Jose de Hermosilla were the first two Spanish architects to receive royal pensions to study in Rome, bringing to a close nearly three centuries of informal and unstructured journeys to Italy by Spanish architects.
The statutes of the 1747 Junta made very clear the regulations concerning the organization of the Spanish pensioners in Rome. The six pensioners were to spend six years in Rome furthering their education. The pensioners were placed under the supervision of Manuel de la Roda y Arrieta, the King’s agent in Rome, and Alfonso Clemente de Arostegui, the Spanish interim minister to the Vatican. Francisco Preciado de la Vega, the Spanish painter who had already been in Rome for several years, was appointed to assist the students in their work. Nevertheless, the pensioners were required to send examples of their work back to Madrid frequently for approval by the professors of the Junta. This form of supervision ensured that the pensioners’ time in Rome was not only productive but also worth the effort spent. Yet the Spaniards were often left alone. Aside from the personal contacts they made in Rome, usually on the suggestion of the Spanish crown, or the few architects within whose studios they worked, there was very little direct supervision.
A significant aspect of the Junta’s program was the desire to imitate the French by establishing a unique presence in Rome comparable to that of the French Academy at the Palazzo Mancini on the Via del Corso (Salerno 1961b: 244-6). Unfortunately, the first pensioners sent to Rome by the Junta were not provided with the sumptuous lodgings and prestigious faculty that the students of San Luca, the French academy, or the Conca School at the Palazzo Farnese enjoyed (Lopez de Meneses 1933-34). Initially, the Spanish students were instructed to reside at the hospice of San Giacomo, located adjacent to the church of San Giacomo degli Spagnoli on the Piazza Navona. The choice of the hospital was obvious, for the church had been historically the nucleus around which the Spanish community in Rome gathered. In addition, the church’s prime location on the Piazza Navona would make it possible for the king’s agent, Manuel de la Roda, to monitor the students’ progress much more easily. Due to unforeseen complications, however, the pensioners had to rely on their own abilities to find proper room and board. As a result, the students tended to be disorganized and difficult to supervise. In his correspondence with the Academy in Madrid, Preciado complained of his scant means, envying the French Academy with its own magnificent palace on the Via del Corso and substantial allowances (Bedat 1989: 260).
Despite the difficulties associated with establishing an academic presence in Rome, the Junta believed that no other mode of education or exposure would be as effective in promoting the fine arts in Spain or cultivating a generation of new Spanish artists and architects. The combination of Roman grandeur with the influx of noted artists, scholars, and travelers from Italy and elsewhere in Europe created a fertile environment for young
Spaniards to be immersed in the study of ancient and modern works of art. Rome was the key ingredient, but as we shall see, it was not a one-way relationship. The many Spanish architects and artists that visited the city in the first half of the eighteenth century were not simply concerned with absorbing Roman precedent. On the contrary, they left behind a discernible trace of architectural and artistic works that confirmed the city’s reputation as the metropoli dell’universo.
World History
