L’Accademia di Belle Arti Pietro Vannucci di Perugia was founded, second after Florence, as the Accademia del Disegno in 1573 by the painter Orazio Alfani and the architect and mathematician Raffaele Sozi. Since 1901, it has been located in the ancient Convento di San Francesco al Prato, a prestigious place next to the Oratorio di San Bernardino by Agostino di Duccio, which since 1974 has also been the exhibition venue for the prestigious art collections, arranged in three sections: Gipsoteca (or plaster gallery); Painting Gallery; Cabinet of Drawings and Prints. The first core of the collections was formed with the monumental Michelangelo-style Plasters (Aurora, Giorno, Crepuscolo, Notte), casts from the Medici Chapel in Florence within the Basilica of San Lorenzo complex, executed and donated in the sixteenth century by the Perugian Vincenzo Danti. During the Napoleonic era, works from suppressed religious companies became part of the academic heritage, the first nucleus of that art collection which would become the National Gallery of Umbria. After the unification of Italy, the Academy became the guide and artistic engine of Umbria’s creativity and increased its collections with donations from institutions and private individuals, especially from artists and academics. After a closure due to the 1997 earthquake, the Academy Museum was reorganized in the same location according to modern and rational criteria: it exhibits over two hundred works from its collection with the same division into Plasters, Paintings, Drawings, and Prints and provides spaces for temporary exhibitions. Among the plasters, exceptional for craftsmanship and variety, stand out the gigantic Hercules Farnese, The Three Graces by Antonio Canova, the original copy donated by the artist, The Laocoön, The Shepherd Boy by Bertel Thorvaldsen, The boxer Damòsseno by Canova, Love and Psyche. Among the paintings, notable are Self-portrait with parrot by Mariano Guardabassi, and paintings by Annibale Brugnoli, Domenico Bruschi, Armando Spadini, Mario Mafai, Alberto Burri, Gerardo Dottori.
Information about the Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts
Piazza San Francesco al Prato,
Perugia (Perugia)
biblioteca@abaperugia.org
https://www.abaperugia.org/
Source: MIBACT
