Spencer Alley: 17th and 18th-century Sculpture by Prominent Academicians

Monday, August 19, 2019

17th and 18th-century Sculpture by Prominent Academicians

Pierre-François Berruer
Louis XV taking the Académie under his Protection
1770
marble relief
Musée du Louvre

"From the outset, the raison d'être of the Académie was to establish a distinction: to show that painting and sculpture were not repetitive, artisanal activities but, by virtue of their intellectual component, belonged to the liberal arts, since their creation required the concerted action of hand and mind. Prior to 1667, this was no more than an oft-repeated affirmation backed by examples from antiquity and the old masters. But in due course the progress of the arts became a political objective. . . . The discovery of the rules of art would be a title of glory not only to the Académie but to the kingdom as a whole, and their application would place France at the head of European art. It is primarily in this respect that we can speak of the monarchy's artistic policy: the fine arts, along with the army, navy, literature, sciences, and manufactories, were intended to establish France as the leading country of Europe."

– The Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture: The Birth of the French School, 1648-1793 by Christian Michel, published in France in 2012, translated by Chris Miller and published by Getty Research Institute in 2018