Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION
L’Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia
Il Settecento
Edited by Giuseppe Pavanello
3 volumes, Antiga Publishing House, 2015
(Review by Giovanni Mazzaferro. Part One)
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| The first volume of the history of the Academy |
Unforgettable books
I was waiting the release of the three volumes dedicated to the life of the Venice Academy in
the eighteenth century with great impatience, and some fear. With great impatience
because, from the Accademia’s historical archives, I have recently published a
manuscript relative to the Academy, signed by Giovanni Edwards O'Kelles, son of Peter, but in reality
a plagiarism of the (also unpublished) writings of the father and I wanted to
understand how the two works (my own being infinitely more modest) come across
[1]; with some fear, because it often happens that such publications (further
four volumes should be released by 2016, on the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries) pursue celebratory purposes and often turn to be missed
opportunities.
Not here.
Here we are facing an exemplary operation, which deserves all praise. Now, I do
not want to disrespect anyone, because the truth is that there are only a few publications
of this level, but the real strength of the work is in the second volume (by
Ilaria Mariani), which hosts the narration on the Academy through its archival
documents, in five hundred dense pages and with a job that must have involved
several people for several years. The narration is on everyday life and the
delivery of the institutional activities, and therefore the school of the nude,
then accompanied by that of architecture and perspective, as well as the related
awards, but also on episodes that punctuate its life and will offer dozens of
ideas to scholars from now on. Let us provide some examples. I would love to
know something more of the Academy of Sciences, established in 1763 (see Vol.
II p. 74), which applied to be housed in the Fonteghetto (i.e. in the
headquarters of the Academy of painting and sculpture) in 1764; the
authorisation was granted on February 5, with the understanding that some form
of gratitude was expected from the hosted institution; it was however
conditional upon the agreement also of the Magistrate of the Reformers of the
University of Padua (p. 75); probably that authorization was never delivered,
since we never heard anything more of the Academy of Sciences. Or, again, I
would like to know more of the Treaty «”On Wax combined
with oil i.e. the oil-wax painting" with the pot of the wax itself », the result of an essay by an anonymous
Frenchman who had sent it to the academics to have an opinion. The minutes of
the meeting is of December 1, 1770 (vol. II p. 127).
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| The second volume of the history of the Academy |
But first
things first: the work covers the period from the birth of the Academy (which was
established in 1750, while its statutes were approved in 1756) until 1807, when
the institute was re-founded under the Kingdom of Italy and adopted the same
statutes prescribed by other academies of the Kingdom (those of Milan and
Bologna). It is divided into three volumes, with the general curatorship by
Giuseppe Pavanello. The first volume contains essays; the second includes the documentary
apparatus; the third offers the reprint (of rare elegance) of the Studj di Pittura (Studies on Painting) of
Giambattista Piazzetta. Piazzetta was the first President of the Academy
(1750-1753), but already held a personal school of nude at his studio and
undoubtedly was one of the key figures of the Venetian art world in that era.
The Studies on Painting were
published posthumously (in 1760) by Giambattista Albrizzi; they not only have
the value of a homage to the deceased, but also the flavour of a textbook,
showing pictures of the teacher (especially nudes or individual body parts:
heads, ears, feet, hands, etc.) with line-engravings by Francesco Bartolozzi
and chiaroscuro woodcuts by Marco Pitteri. As evidence of its editorial success,
it suffices to say that seven editions are known. Ahead of the engravings, Albrizzi
inserted the 1756 text of Alcuni
avvertimenti per lo incamminamento di un giovane nella pittura (Some warnings for the introduction
of a young man in painting) by Giampietro Zanotti, the co-founder of the
Bolognese Clementine Accademy. This reflected a substantial continuity with
Piazzetta’s biography (as he was appointed honorary member of the Clementine in
1727) but also with the genesis of the Venetian and Bolognese academies (the former
statutes were written by examining those of the latter).
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| The third volume of the history of the Academy |
The first volume
Here we are
displaying the index of the essays proposed in the first volume:
- Giuseppe Pavanello, L'Accademia veneziana del Settecento (The Venetian Academy of the Eighteenth Century);
- Piero Del Negro, L'Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia dalle origini al 1806 (The Academy of Fine Arts of Venice from its Origins to 1806);
- Elizabeth Molteni, La sede dell'Accademia: il Fonteghetto della Farina a San Marco (The Seat of the Academy: the Fonteghetto della Farina in San Marco);
- Giuseppe Pavanello, "Accademia del Nudo"; Catalogo dei disegni di nudo (The "Academy of Nude"; Catalogue of Nude Drawings);
- Denis Ton, I pittori dell'Accademia: tra studio e autopromozione (The Academy Painters: between Study and Self-promotion);
- Giuseppe Pavanello, La scultura / Gli scultori (Sculpture / Sculptors);
- Massimo Bisson, La scuola e i concorsi di architettura; Catalogo dei disegni di architettura (The School and the Architectural Competitions; Catalogue of Architectural Drawings);
- Debora Tosato, Vicende storiche e fisionomia della raccolta dei 'saggi' di Accademia (Historical Events and Layout of the Collection of 'Essays' of the Academy);
- Alessio Pasian, La scuola del nudo: dagli studi dei pittori alle sale dell'Accademia (The School of Nude: from the Painter Studios to the Halls of the Academy);
- Loredana Olivato and Sandra Rossi, Conservazione e restauro all'Accademia di Venezia nel Settecento (Conservation and Restoration at the Venice Academy in the Eighteenth Century);
- Francesca Stopper, Bibliografia generale e indice dei nomi (General Bibliography and Index of Names).
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| Canaletto, The 'Fonteghetto della Farina', Private collection Source: http://www.gallerieaccademia.it/laccademia-di-belle-arti-di-venezia-1750-2010 |
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| A modern image of the Fondaco della Farina (now seat of Venice Port Authorities ) Source: http://www.canalgrandevenezia.it/index.php/palazzi-canal-grande/lato-destro/195-fondaco-della-farina |
It is
commonplace to say that the birth of the Academy fits in the eighteenth-century
fashion of "public" Academies that originated from the birth of the one
in Paris of 1648. In this sense, the creation of the Venetian one could be
considered to take place at a rather late date (and one could, uncritically,
read it as the resistance of the "colour school" compared to the unstoppable
progression of drawing as foundation of painting). In reality, things cannot be
judged as schematically: the need to start from design and the reproduction of
the human body is a priority in any form of education, because of the easy
transmissibility of teaching, and regardless of the dispute between Tuscany and
Veneto that it is traced back in Vasari's time. In this sense, the essay by
Alessio Pasian is of particular interest. It probes and recalls the various
testimonies about "nude schools" operating at the Venetian painter studios
well before the opening of the Academy. Pasian also get to present a new and
very important element, namely the deed contract on March 7, 1690 between the
nobleman Francesco Cappello and the Collegio dei Pittori (the organization
representing the artists and that just eight years earlier had separated from the
Arte dei depintori, the Guild of
Painters/Whitewashers, where instead also low manpower was active) for the
rental of two-floors at the Fondamenta
Nove, near the Church of Saints John and Paul, where to
establish the headquarters of the College and especially a nude school: "Any
meeting with women will be prohibited in that hall and rooms, both to organise
dances at night, or to have any entertainment with women, with the exception of
the academy of human bodies [editor's note: presumably also of women] for their
study"(p. 307). The very high rent (100 ducats) had to be financed by the fees
obtained by the young people enrolled in the school. The first attempt to
organize a drawing school outside of the individual artist studies is,
therefore, a private initiative, and it comes from those who consider
themselves legitimate and direct descendants of the guild system in force since the Middle Ages. In this connection, I would
like to point out that the documentary research has ultimately confirmed what
was written by Pietro Edwards and then also reported by the son in the General Repertoire of Venetian Fine Arts.
I transcribe verbatim: "In this way [editor's note: painters] tried to
shape within the Board itself an academy of design at private expense. The
first opening of this Academy followed in the 1684 year; and since the College did
not have a own residence, so it was opened at the House of Chevalier Liberi, its
Prior and Chairman; later on, in 1689, a house was finally rented in the
so-called Fondamenta Nuove, then just restored after a fire, which a hundred
years later was transformed into a fabric itself; and it was decided to lay
down the rules for the Academy of Design, established in our college". A little
further on, however, we learn that "as nobody could support the
expenditure of the Academy House in the Fondamenta Nuove, the school was
suspended for some time"[3].
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| Giambattista Tiepolo, Establishment of the Rosary, Venezia, Ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria del Rosario alias dei Gesuati Source: Wikimedia Commons |
The Academy vs the College of Painters
When the
Senate decided in 1724 to finance an Academy, things changed radically. In
fact, the decision will have practical effect only in 1750 with the allocation
of the seat to the Fondaco della Farina.
The fundamental change is that the Academy became public, and above all that it
was created as a fully autonomous body with respect to the College of Painters
and that (which had been added later) of the Sculptors. Both colleges have no
control on the Institute. This, according to Pietro Edwards - who, let us remember,
was a proud partisan of the College - was not pleasing to the painters who -
according to what he said - had spent 1,984 ducats for the preparation of theiAcademy between 1750 and 1755 [4] and found out eventually that they had themselves
to pay a (symbolic) fee to the Academy itself (20 ducats a year) in order to
hold meetings in the hall of a palace, whose restructuring they had financed.
There is no need to restate here all the controversies over the following
years. Just keep in mind that the creation of the public Academy meant to break
with the corporatist system. Piero Del Negro remembers it very well in his
essay, entitled The Academy of Fine Arts
of Venice from its Origins to 1806 (p. 75). This implied "the abandonment
of a logic focused on 'professional groups’ in favour of a 'global' cultural
discourse, i.e. referring to all three fine arts". And that was exactly
what the College did not want, since it was instead tied to a totally
monopolistic art management, including the admission of students, the
appointment of Academy members, and the exclusive control on the exercise of
the profession. This is the reason for the dispute, which will be full of tasty
episodes (like the revolt of the students in 1774 to which also Antonio Canova participated and
which was supported by the College) fully described in the book. The support of
the College to the revolt was likely a revenge for the attempt, perpetrated
three years before by the Academy, to deprive the Board of the 130 ducats that
represented its main source of income, resulting from the "custody"
of the Doge's Palace pictures (p. 87). A foiled attempt (Edwards credited
himself the merit of having impeded it would materialise) just in 1774.
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| Giovan Battista Piazzetta, A beggar boy, Art Institute of Chicago Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Mind you,
in a world of many meanness, there are also enlightened voices, like that of the young Andrea Memmo who in early 1760 drafted a treatise that will be printed twenty
years later under the title "General Plan for the Academy over the Fine Arts
of Design" (I confess I completely ignored its existence). "Memmo
anticipated in the ‘treatise’ certain nineteenth-century developments of the
Academy, including the complete overcoming of the idea that it should be a sort
of "collective" workshop of artists, in which to train the hired
servants, and its subsequent transformation into a school-type institution, quite
independent from the two colleges. Among other things, the plan called for six
"schools" [...] for aspiring painters and sculptors [...] and four
for aspiring architects [...] In addition, the Academy should be enriched with
a library and a collection of statues, plaster models, paintings, medals,
ivories etc., i.e. with collections for educational purposes, that the statutes
had not foreseen" (p. 81). All proposals that would not be accepted by a
Republic now deprived of sufficient financial funds (each year the Republic funded
the Academy with 480 ducats, which were just enough to cover living expenses
and the organization of competitions; all the officials were virtually benevolent
and therefore unpaid).
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| Giambattista Pittoni, Annunciation, 1758, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia Source: Wikimedia Commons |
As from
1771, the Academy was given the possibility to appoint honorary members. The
complete index of those who were appointed Academicians
of Honour can be found in the second volume on p. 531. It is obvious that
their appointment responded to various purposes: to involve in Venetian institutions
those artists who had remained outside them for any reason, but especially
nobles, collectors and members of the political class, in order to enjoy more
protection (and more donations); but it also responded to the need (even
greater, when the Republic fell) to curry favour with the rulers on duty; and
finally (but not least) there was an effort to forge links with artists,
especially foreigners, who were reputed to fame or were in town for a few days.
The "reductions" (i.e. the meetings) convened specifically to pay
homage and confer an academic degree to this or that politician, this or that
artist visiting Venice, were not rare. Nothing extraordinary. We know very well
that often special races on the Grand Canal were organized to please distinguished
guests and receive in return generous donations.
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| Alessandro Longhi, Allegory of Painting and Merit, 1761, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Personally,
I think that even the case of Giuseppe Fossati, who curiously does not seem
stressed in volume, did not escape the rule. Among the many beautiful surprises
of this work appears, in fact, the facsimile reproduction of the Orazione recitata il 21 settembre 1774
(Speech given on September 21, 1774) at the first distribution of the
Academy Awards in the new location. The speech, with its blatantly laudatory
tones - and it could not be otherwise - was precisely read by Giuseppe Fossati.
On Giuseppe Fossati, who actually "grew up" as a lawyer and above all
as a literate, I would simply recall what the Abbot Meneghelli wrote in the Elogii di alcuni illustri italiani (Praise
of some illustrious Italians) [5]. No wonder that he spoke well of him: he had
just died in 1812. The abbot writes that Giuseppe had long been uncertain
whether to choose legal studies or fine arts, being "born of a father who had
a fine and secure eye in the arts of design"; a demonstration of this were
precisely the speeches held in the Academy for the distribution of the prizes
in 1774 and in 1775. The award ceremony of 1774 is universally remembered as
the most pompous and successful in the history of the Academy for the number
and quality of those present. There is only a small detail, which in fact is
not mentioned here (a small flaw in a work of this size is really a trifle).
For Meneghelli, and all other sources, Giovanni was born in 1759; and was therefore
only 15 years old. Most probably, the speech had not written by him. Giuseppe's
father was David Antonio Fossati, the rich merchant of art and among the first ones
to be named Academic of Honor in 1771 [6]; the speech of the son was printed
"in 470 copies, of which twenty with a ‘leather and gold’ cover page reserved
for the authorities" and shipped all over Europe (p. 86). The printing
costs were entirely borne by his father. Thus, reading all of this, we begin to
understand that these events were situations where the Academy offered
visibility in return of money. Incidentally, also Giovanni was named Academic
of Honor in October of the following year, on the occasion of his second speech:
he was 16 years old.
***
I fear I may
have tired the reader and do not want to abuse his patience. I intend to
propose a few further personal considerations in the second part of this
review, which will be published in a few days.
End of Part One
NOTES
[1] Giovanni Mazzaferro, Le Belle Arti a Venezia nei manoscritti di Pietro e Giovanni Edwards,
Florence, GoWare, 2015 and Giovanni Mazzaferro, Fra Repubblica, Napoleone e Impero Austriaco: Pietro Edwards Ispettore
Generale alle Belle Arti di Venezia in Annuario
Accademia di Belle Arti, 2015, being published soon. I would like to signal that my Le Belle Arti a Venezia ... also
contains in Appendix III the Antiquity of
the Union of Painters in Venice, the manuscript of Pietro Edwards
repeatedly quoted from Elena Bassi, but until now unpublished. I am referring
to this because the manuscript, which Ms Bassi dates as following 1792, is
instead dated by Piero Del Negro as 1783 approximately. The text is actually
composed of two parts. The first (judging from the comparison with his son's
plagiarism) is of 1794; the second is, in turn, the transcription of another
text by Pietro, created in the mid 80s (and thus the date 1883 is totally
credible, but only with reference to the final section). See in particular
Le Belle Arti a Venezia ... p. 233,
note 431.
[2]
Nikolaus Pevsner, Academies of Art. Past and Present, Cambridge 1940.
[3] Giovanni Mazzaferro, Le Belle Arti a Venezia... cit., P. 79-80.
[4] idem ..., p. 81.
[5] Antonio Meneghelli, Elogio
di alcuni illustri italiani (Praise of some Illustrious Italians), Venice,
Alvisopoli Typography, 1816, vol. II, pp. 78-79.
[6] See Il
collezionismo d’arte a Venezia. Il Settecento (Art collecting in Venice. The
eighteenth century), edited by Linda Borean and Stephanie Mason, Venice,
Marsilio, 2009, pp. 268-269.
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