National Academy of San Luca

The National Academy of Saint Luca has its origin in the institution established between the late 1500s and early 1600s when an ancient confraternity of painters associated with the Università delle Arti della Pittura held meetings at the little church of San Luca all’Esquilino in Rome (the church has since been demolished). In 1577 a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII at the urging of the painter Girolamo Muziano instituted the Accademia delle Arti della Pittura, della Scultura e del Disegno (the “Academy of the Arts of Painting, of Sculpture and of Drawing”), but it would be 1593 before the Academy was symbolically “founded” by Federico Zuccari with the formal approval of the original statutes of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma (the “Academy of the Painters and Sculptors of Rome” – but not architects, who were first welcomed into the ranks of the Academy only in 1634, when Pietro da Cortona was “Prince” of the institution). In 1934, following the demolition of the Academy’s historical seat next to the church of Santi Luca e Martina – to make way for the new Via dell’Impero running through the Roman Forum – the Academy moved to its current headquarters in Palazzo Carpegna. From its foundation onwards, the Academy’s activities had always included teaching, in the form of conferences, symposia and courses in painting, sculpture and architecture, but in 1874 this aspect of the Academy’s work was delegated to the Reale Istituto di Belle Arti (now known as the Accademia di Belle Arti), while the Academy itself was charged with organising cultural activities intended to enrich and promote the fine arts. Today such work continues via the publication of books regarding the Academy and its history, the organisation of exhibitions at the Academy’s headquarters, the safeguarding and conservation of its physical patrimony and the loaning of works from the Academy’s collections (drawings, paintings and sculptures) for display in national and international exhibitions. The Academy, also, focuses on young artists and scholars in particular through the distribution of scholarships and prizes.