In celebration of the 450th anniversary of the foundation of the Accademia del Disegno, the first modern academy of art, a group of thirty-nine scholars have penned essays exploring the multivalent activities and histories of the august institution. While the early history of the Florentine Academy as well as the many spectacles it produced has been assiduously studied for decades and are ably discussed in the present volume, other sections of the book present fascinating new aspects of the structure and activity of the institution. Enrico Sartori's essays on the statutes of the Academy and its jurisdictional activity are dense compilations uniting the magisterial early studies of Cavallucci (1873) and Ticciati (1876), with the extant archival documentation. Luigi Zangheri supplies a chronological list of all the luogotenenti and presidents, each with a useful mini-biography.
Piero Pacini traces the various meeting rooms and chapel sites utilized by the Academy from its beginnings at the church of Santa Maria Nuova to its move in 1971 to Via Orsanmichele. The Academy required a space for their religious devotions and for providing a worthy resting place for deceased members of the organization. Pacini argues that the space for these religious observances was always separate from their meeting space (140). He outlines this pattern in the fifteenth-century arrangement at Santa Maria Nuova, the new headquarters and chapel at SS. Annunziata, and the very brief arrangement at San Lorenzo in 1563. There, the new sacristy was used as their chapel, while they held their academic meetings in the Laurentian library. Pacini's recognition that the dichotomous functions of the Academy were carried out in appropriate spaces supports new evidence that the new sacristy was not a purely secular storehouse, as has often been assumed. Since some religious services were performed there, it was not suitable as a meeting site. In contrast, the library was suitable: unfinished and spacious. In fact, there was a precedent for setting up models and drawings there. In 1560 and 1564 Agnolo Bronzino is documented there working on the cartoons for his mammoth fresco of the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence and the altarpiece of the Deposition commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici for a church on the island of Elba.
Alessandra Baroni and Bert W. Meijer reconstruct the original appearance of the chapel of the Academy in the church of the SS. Annunziata, pointing out the relocation of the altar, the destruction of some architectural features, and the losses and movements of sculptures and paintings. In considering the evolution of the seal of the Academy, Alessandro Vezzosi sees Cellini's designs as anticipating Symbolism, Surrealism, Dada, and Fluxus. Luigi Zangheri and Maria Sframeli provide extensive material regarding the development of the art gallery and collections of the Academy. Also useful are the attendant essays concentrating on the plaster casts, the photographic archive, the collection of medals, the library, and archives of the Academy, treasures that are often overlooked.
The scientists and humanists who graced the Academy, the foundation of a short-lived music school and conservatory for the trades, and teaching initiatives in speech and theater are described, as well as their contributions to the cultural life of Florence. Compilations of the winners of various competitions during the nineteenth century in music (385–92) and in mechanical innovations and chemical processes (404–07) are a precious testimony to these discontinued initiatives. Important members of the Academy were not limited to artists. In several essays, historians, scientists, humanists, academics, women, and honorary members are discussed. These range from the artists Constantin Brancusi, Jasper Johns, Sir John Soane (architect and collector), Gaetano Milanesi (best known for his edited version of Vasari's Lives), Nicolai Rubinstein (historian), Eve Borsook (art historian), Giorgio Spini (historian), and Dietrich von Bothmer (art historian and curator), to Artemisia Gentileschi (the first woman admitted, now viewed as a powerhouse among early modern women artists) and Rita Levi Montalcini (Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine in 1986).
The abolition of the Academy in 1784 was quickly followed by the establishment of the Accademia delle Belle Arti, whose remit was to instruct students in the fine arts within the framework of a school, completely shorn of any religious or mortuary rituals.
