Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara

Via Roma, 1 / I-54033 Carrara
Phone (+39) 0585.71658 (tre linee r.a.)
Fax (+39) 0585.70295
info@accademia.carrara.ms.it
www.accademiacarrara.it

1757: the first foundations in the Academy of San Ceccardo
The official record of foundation of the Academy of Art of Carrara dates back to the 26 th September 1769.

Its patroness was Maria Teresa Cybo, duchess of Massa and princess of Carrara , Ercole Rinaldo d'Este duke of Modena 's wife: however, the foundations of an Academy dedicated to San Ceccardo had been already laid some years before. Giovanni Domenico Olivieri was a sculptor from Carrara who had lived at the Spanish court and cooperated to the foundation of the Academy in Madrid : already in April 1757 according to his proposal, Maria Teresa promulgated the memorandum of an Academy in Carrara , planning the teaching of the three arts, paint, sculpture and architecture.

Besides, there was already a former tradition concerning the sculpturing education thanks to private artisans who in their workshops in Carrara (as Baratta's one in Baluardo quarter) became kind of patrons for their students.

The older Academy of San Ceccardo was never started and only in 1769 with a later autograph document Maria Teresa sanctioned its foundation and opened its courses but, on the other hand, she removed the course of painting from the memorandum .

The academy was then founded in order to promote the development of arts, supporting at the same time both the industry and the trade of marble: for this reason were opened only the schools of Sculpture and Architecture. The chief director of the school of sculpture was Giovanni Cybei; the inspector of the school of architecture was Filippo Del Medico, who designed the seat of the Academy too.

In view of the historical precedents, it must be acknowledged that the foundation of the Academy of Carrara must be advanced by a dozen years from the date of the official autograph document, and so it can be set among the most ancient in Europe.

Three women at the origins of the Academy
In order to place the courses, a purpose seat was built (the present “Palazzo Rosso”, which is now the seat of the Town Library) and the works started in 1771. Moreover, in 1781, Maria Teresa levied a marble duty to finance the costs of the school.

After the first hopeful years, a decline period followed because of both the founder's death and the consequences in Italy of the French Revolution in 1789.

When the Cisalpine Republic took over Massa and Carrara , Ercole III returning form from Modena arranged some measures to ensure the existence of the School and to preserve its prestige and distinction.

In 1805, the Academy took the name of “Eugeniana”, in honour of Eugenio Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy , and thanks to the new regulations, it became a national important institute. The teaching structure increased its importance with the chairs of “History and Mythology” and “Pictorial Anatomy”.

Canova and the opening of the collection of plaster casts
Appealed by the need to have at their' disposal finer marble for statuary art, the most illustrious sculptors of the time and among them Canova, have to come to Carrara and could not ignore the Academy: many of them donated their mouldings and plaster casts in order to enable the institute to open a collection of plaster casts.

Under Elisa Bonaparte Baiocchi's rule, who governed the Dukedom of Lucca and Piombino with the Principality of Massa and Carrara , the Academy continued in the best way its educational activity and availed itself of teachers as the French painter Desmarias, the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini, the poet Giovanni Fantoni and Lorenzo Papi.

In 1810, Elisa Bonaparte set the Academy in the present Palace, which in the meantime had been widened and reconstructed. Further restoration works had been made on the medieval fortress between 1623 and 1863, even after Elisa's government: in 1924, other reconstruction works were needed because of the earthquake in 1920.

The competition for boarding school in Rome

Among Elisa's merits, there was the institution of a prize: the winners could spend three years in famous artists' workshops in Rome in order to improve their skills in the subject they chose. Napoleon's defeat (1813) caused another change in the city administration, which went back under Maria Beatrice's rule, Maria Teresa's daughter and wife of Ferdinando, the archduke of Austria .

The atmosphere of Restoration brought changes in the teaching structure: without Elisa's patronage, foreigner artists found themselves in a very precarious situation, until 1816 when they were even asked to leave the “Estensi” kingdoms.

From Beatrice's death to Italian Unity
When Beatrice died (1829), the rule went to the Duke Francesco IV and later to the Duke Francesco V: they governed subjectively and arbitrarily so that their politic had bad after-effects on the Institute. However, thanks to the sculptor Ferdinando Pelliccia from Carrara, the teaching went on and the students of the boarding school in Rome continued to receive aids from the academy: Pelliccia indeed entered the institute in 1836 as a teacher, in 1846 became director and he devoted himself with great passion and responsibility to the Academy until 1895.

In 1861 with Italian Unity, the academy passed under a ministerial rule setting its system and regulating its teaching activities: only the course of sculpture contemplated a four- year syllabus and students could enter the school at the age of twelve.

The academy today: an institute seeking university status
A part some limited changes concerning teaching in 1895, the rules of the academy remained the same until 1923. In that year, a royal order re-founded the present days Academy : then there was only the Course of Sculpture lasting four years. In 1969 the Course of Painting was instituted too, in 1978 the course of Stage Design and only in 1991 stared the course of Decoration.

From 1923 to present days the regulations has remained almost the same, a part from some bureaucratic and administrative changes. The main innovation was the starting in 1970 of special courses: at the begging, the attendance was optional and only after the ministerial order of July 30 th 1977 , the introduction of these courses in the curriculum became compulsory.

The vocational marble Institute “Pietro Tacca”.

Via P. Tacca N° 36 - 54033 Carrara (MS)
Phone (+39) 0585 71421
Fax (+39) 058 5 75240
info@istitutomarmotacca.it
www.istitutomarmotacca.it

The vocational Institute for marble industry and handicraft “Pietro Tacca” is an atypical institute, unique in Italy and perhaps all over the world.

It was founded as the “School for marble of Carrara” in the last decades of XIX century by a union of private, handicraft or industrial firms in order to train workers, who were supposed to find a local job: it has lived with this purpose for half a century, with alternate fortunes.

The world depression in 1930-1940 involved marble industry and the school was changed first into a subsection of the Academy of Art and later it became part of Artistic High School , reducing its role to a simple laboratory where the students from those other schools could do their practical exercises.

At the end of the Second World War, the school regained its vocational role and between 50s and 60s it could boast the training of the 90% of the workers and artisans who are still now the productive ground of local stone industry. In July 1959 with a decree of the President of the Italian Republic , the State recognized the public importance of the school and changed it into an independent institute with legal status.