The Roman Art World in the 18th Century and the Birth of the Art Academy in Britain

The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca and the British School at Rome

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca and the British School at Rome (BSR) invite submissions for papers for the conference The Roman Art World in the 18th Century and the Birth of the Art Academy in Britain, to be held in Rome between 10 and 11 December 2018. The conference will focus on the role of the Roman pedagogical model in the formation of the British academic art world in the long 18th century.

Even as Paris progressively dominated the modern art world during the 18th century, Rome retained its status as the ‘academy’ of Europe, attracting a vibrant international community of artists and architects. Their exposure to the Antique and the Renaissance masters was supported by a complex pedagogical system. The Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, the Capitoline Accademia del Nudo, the Concorsi Clementini, and numerous studios and offices, provided a network of institutions and a whole theoretical and educational model for the relatively young British art world, which was still striving to create its own modern system for the arts. Reverberations of the Roman academy system were felt back in Britain through initiatives in London such as the Great Queen Street Academy, the Duke of Richmond’s Academy, the Saint Martin’s Lane Academy and the Royal Society of Arts. But it was a broader national phenomenon too, inspiring the likes of the Foulis Academy in Glasgow and the Liverpool Society of Artists. The foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1768 officially sanctioned the affirmation of the Roman model.

If past scholarship has concentrated mainly on the activities of British artists while in Rome, this conference wishes to address the process of intellectual migration, adaptation and reinterpretation of academic, theoretical and pedagogical principles from Rome back into 18th- century Britain. It responds to the rise of intellectual history, building on prevalent trends in the genealogy of knowledge and the history of disciplines, as well as the mobility and exchange of ideas and cultural translation across borders.

The conference welcomes diverse approaches to investigating the dissemination of the academic ideal from Rome to Britain. These might address, but are by no means limited to, the following topics:

• The impact of the Roman academic structure, theory and pedagogy on British art academies, artists’ studios and architects’ offices.

• The impact of art and architectural theory in Rome on the formation of a public discourse on art and architecture in Britain.

• The process of adaptation and reinterpretation of Roman theoretical and pedagogical principles to the British artistic and architectural context, and the extent to which British art academies developed new principles, absorbed the Roman model, or derived them from elsewhere.

• The role played by Roman and Italian artists and architects in the formation and structuring of the 18th-century British art academies and, in particular, of the Royal Academy of Arts.

• The presence and activities of British artists and architects in Roman studios, offices and academies and the presence of Italian artists in British academies.

• The role played by other relevant academies – such as those at Parma and Florence – on the formation of British artists and architects in relationship/opposition to the Roman model.

This conference will conclude a series of events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. It will also be part of a series of conferences and exhibitions focusing on the role of the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in the spread of the academic ideal in Europe and beyond, inaugurated in 2016 with an exhibition and conference on the relationship between Rome and the French academy, held at the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca and at the Académie de France à Rome.

Please provide a concise title and abstract (250 words maximum) for a 20-minute paper. Send your proposal, with a current CV of no more than two pages, to humanitiesbsrome.it

Proposals must be received by midnight, Monday 12 March 2018. Speakers will be notified of the committee’s decision in mid-April 2018. Travel grants will be available.

Dr Adriano Aymonino

Professor Carolina Brook

Professor Gian Paolo Consoli

Dr Thomas-Leo True