The official act of foundation of the Academy of Fine Arts goes back to 26th September 1769. The patron was Maria Teresa Cybo, Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara, wife of Ercole Rinaldo d’Este, duke of Modena. However, some years before, the foundations had already been laid for an Academy named after San Ceccardo: accepting the proposal made by Giovanni Domenico Olivieri, a sculptor from Carrara who had lived at the Spanish court and collaborated in the foundation of the Academy of Madrid, Maria Teresa had already promulgated the statutes of an Academy of Carrara in April 1757, which foresaw the teaching of the three arts, painting, sculpture and architecture.
There already existed a preceding tradition of schooling in sculpture, set up by private individuals who kept studies in Carrara – as, for example, the one belonging to Baratta in Baluardo – and who were patrons to their own students.
The Academy of Carrara is therefore to be considered as one of the oldest Institutes of superior education in art in Europe.

A building was constructed to house the courses (the present Palazzo Rosso, now the Civic Library), and work began in 1771. As well as this, in 1781 Maria Teresa introduced a tax on marble in order to finance the costs of the school.
As the years went by, the most important sculptors of the times, among whom Canova, came to Carrara attracted by their need to get hold of the finest marble, and they could not ignore the Academy: many of them made gifts of ‘casts’ and ‘plaster models’, which today make up the Institute’s important Gallery of Plaster Casts. The Academy continued with its educational activities under Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi, who held the Dukedom of Lucca and Piombino with the Principality of Massa and Carrara.
At this time, claimed as teachers the French painter Desmarais, the sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini and the poets Giovanni Fantoni and Lorenzo Papi.

In 1810 Elisa Bonaparte assigned the present Palazzo Malaspiniano to the Academy. This was an ancient castle dating back to 1187, which had originally been part of the defence system of the valley before becoming the seat of the Malaspina and then, after extension and restructuring, turning into what is the present structure under Alberico Cybo Malaspina at the end of the XVI century.

In 1861, with the Unity of Italy, the Academy was given ministerial regulations which established its organization and disciplined its didactical activities. A four year plan of studies was set up for the school of sculpture.

Generations of students passed through the school down this long period, many of whom were known and appreciated on the international stage. Among these we can remember Carlo Finelli, Pietro Fontana, Pietro Tenerani, Bernardo Raggi, Giovanni Tacca, Luigi Bienamé, Benedetto Cacciatori, Carlo Cheli and many others.

The regulations remained the same (except for partial modifications in 1895 in relation to instruction) until 1923. In that year a royal decree re-founded the present Academy as the single School of Sculpture, lasting four years. The School of Painting was introduced in 1969, in 1978, the School of Painting for Scenery and only in 1991, the School of Decoration.

Subsequently, the Institute was officially recognized in all effects as a university structure and so it now follows this type of organization in the articulation of its syllabuses.

For more information:
Addresses:
Head office: Palazzo Malaspina
Via Roma, 1 / I-54033 Carrara
Tel. (+39) 0585.71658 (three lines)
Fax (+39) 0585.70295
www.accademia.carrara.ms.it
info@accademiacarrara.it

Branch office: Sculpture workshop
Via C. Fontana, 4 - Tel. (+39) 0585.72252

Branch office: Palazzo Forti
Via M. Buonarroti, 1 - Tel. (+39) 0585.777056

Branch office: Pietrasanta
Via Garibaldi, 97 – Pietrasanta (LU)
Tel. (+39) 0584.792780

National Students’ Committee of Carrara
Tel. e Fax (+39) 0585.777834