Two events occurred during the Renaissance that helped to shape the formation of the first art academies in Europe. The rise of Rome’s economic situation contributed to a corresponding rise in the status of artists. At the same time there was a new and unparalleled interest in the collecting of antiquities.
Following the sack of Rome and eventual transfer of artistic authority to France, the celebrated Italian sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was invited to the French court where he offered the following advice to the newly formed French Academy :
… standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by all the members of the Academy, he (Bernini) said that it was his opinion that they should have in the Academy casts of all the best ancient statues, bas-reliefs and busts for the instruction of young people, making them draw after these ancient models in order to instill in them at the outset that idea of beauty which would afterwards be useful to them for their whole life. It is dangerous, he said, to set them to draw from nature at the very beginning, because nature is almost always weak and paltry and because, if their imagination is filled only with that, they will never be able to produce anything beautiful and great which is not to be found in nature. Those who draw from nature must already have considerable skill in order to be able to recognize faults and to correct them, which young people who have no experience are incapable of doing…
Click here for more by Bernini and Peter Paul Rubens on the IMITATION OF STATUES
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