 | |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Established | 1776; 250 years ago (1776) |
| President | Livia Pomodoro |
| Dean | Giovanni Iovane |
| Students | 3,800[1] |
| Location | , Italy 45°28′20″N9°11′17″E / 45.47222°N 9.18806°E /45.47222; 9.18806 |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | www |
 | |
TheAccademia di Belle Arti di Brera (lit. 'Academy of fine arts of Brera'), also known as theAccademia di Brera orBrera Academy, is a state-runtertiarypublicacademy of fine arts inMilan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with thePinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public museum for art. In 2010 an agreement was signed to move the accademia to a formermilitary barracks, the Caserma Magenta in via Mascheroni.[2] In 2018 it was announced that Caserma Magenta was no longer a viable option, with the former railway yard in Via Farini now under consideration as a potential venue for the campus extension.[3]
The academy was founded in 1776 byMaria Theresa of Austria. In typicalEnlightenment fashion, it shared premises with other cultural and scientific institutions – theastronomical observatory, theOrto Botanico di Brera, the Scuole Palatine for philosophy and law, theGymnasium, laboratories for physics and chemistry, theBiblioteca di Brera, the agricultural society and, from 1806, thePinacoteca di Brera or art gallery.[4]: 249 These were housed in thePalazzo Brera, which was built in about 1615 to designs byFrancesco Maria Richini, and until thesuppression of the Jesuits in 1773 had been aJesuit college.[5]
Like other state-run art academies in Italy, the Accademia di Brera falls under theMinistero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universita e della Ricerca, the Italian ministry of education and research.[6] In accordance withpresidential decree 212 dated 8 July 2005, it awards first- and second-leveldegrees, specialised degrees,master's degrees anddoctorates.[7]
The accademia has three departments: the department ofvisual arts, with courses indecorative art,graphic art,painting andsculpture; the department ofdesign andapplied art, which has courses inart restoration, design for business, new technologies of art andscenic design; and the department of communication and education in art, with courses in conservation ofcultural heritage and inart education.[8]
It has about 3,800 students, including about 1,000 foreign students (mostly postgraduates).[1] It participates in theERASMUS programme, and exchanges students and teachers with institutions in other countries in Europe and elsewhere.[9]
The picture gallery of the accademia, now thePinacoteca di Brera, was started in 1806, inNapoleonic times.[4]: 249 Large numbers of paintings were brought to Milan after the suppression of the convents by Napoleon. The façade of the church ofSanta Maria in Brera of the former monastery was torn down and the nave of the church was divided horizontally; the upper floor became the Napoleonic rooms of the art gallery of the Accademia, which opened in 1809 as the Reale Galleria, and the lower floor housed the sculptures of the museum of antiquities. A Sala dei Moderni, which held contemporary works, was started in 1806 byGiuseppe Bossi.[4]: 256 The Pinacoteca became independent of the accademia in 1882, though both remain in Palazzo Brera.[4]: 249
Alumni of the academy include the playwrightDario Fo, recipient of the 1997Nobel Prize in Literature;[10] and theFuturist painterCarlo Carrà, who also taught at the academy from 1939 to 1952.[11]
Others who have taught at the Brera include theVenetian painterFrancesco Hayez, professor of painting from 1822 to 1880;[12] and the architect and writerCamillo Boito, who was professor of architecture from 1860 to 1909, and for part of that time also president of the academy.[13]
The Contemporary Art Library of the Academy[14] is one of the 24 libraries in the world that own the "Treatise on Demonology, Summa verborum, numeri, temporis et spatii" byFilippo Biagioli.
