Galleria dell’Accademia Nazionale di San Luca

The National Academy of St Luke was born of the University of Painters, Miniaturists and Embroiderers.
Moved by a desire to restore the arts while giving prestige to the artist's calling and establishing respected training courses for young people, the painter Girolamo Muziano sponsored the creation of an Academy which would combine the three figurative arts, welcoming painters, sculptors and architects who had achived proven renown.
The proposal was accepted by pope Gregory XIII and in 1577 was created the Roman Academy of Fine Arts. The institution's first prince (president), Federico Zuccari, was charged with creating a new set of statutes thus launching what was to be a centuries-long history of activity under the direction of the leading artist of the day. The Academy, which was given the title of "Insigne e Pontificia Accademia Romana di S Luca" under Gregory XVI, was accorded a good deal of prestige. In 1782 the Academy became a royal institution and in 1948 a national one. The leading artists of every age, the individuals whose names and works make up the history of art, have all been members of the St Luke Academy (Bernini, Pietro da Cortona, Alessandro Algardi, Carlo Fontana and so on).