The academization of art A practice approach to the early histories of the Accademia del Disegno and the Accademia di San Luca

This dissertation offers a comprehensive interpretation of the first official art academies in Europe, the Florentine Accademia del Disegno (1563) and the Roman Accademia di San Luca (1593). By conceiving these academies as crossing points of patronage, literary-theoretical, guild, educational, and religious-confraternal practices this study presents a multifaceted and integral understanding of these institutions. As such it rejects previous interpretations, in which these academies are reduced to one of their activities (e.g. patronage).
The focus on ‘social practices’ entails the application of insights of theories of practice to a cultural-historical research object. The development of theories of practice, especially those of Pierre Bourdieu and Theodore Schatzki, is the second objective of this study, in addition to improving the understanding of the Accademia del Disegno and the Accademia di San Luca in the early years of their existence.
The abovementioned practices of the art academies are reconstructed by focusing on the skills that were required from the participants, on the rules that were observed (or transgressed), and on the goals that were pursued by the participants. Moreover, it is shown how the social practices that were carried out in the Accademia del Disegno and the Accademia di San Luca converged or conflicted with external practices and with each other, and how this is related to the various types of power relations that were at work in these institutions.