Instituted by the
papal brief of Gregory XIII in 1577, the academy united
artists who worked in the field of the three arts:
painting (in which miniatures and embroideries were
included), sculpture and architecture. A model for the
other European academies founded during the course of
the 18th century, the Academy of San Luca houses many
works by Italian and foreign artists who by statute,
once elected "Academicians_ had to donate their
self-portrait and a work of their specialisation.
Set out in the Carpegna Palace, built by followers of
Giacomo Oella Porta and reconstructed halfway through
the 1600's by Francesco Borromini, the Gallery today
houses works by contemporary artists.
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The fragment of fresco with the
Cherub holding a festoon is an exact copy of the cherub on
the left hand side of the fresco with the prophet Isaiah in
Sant'Agostino commissioned by the apostolic protonotary
Giovanni Goritz. It isn't easy to determine the original
arrangement of this fresco which was said, in the past, to
have come from the Vatican Palaces; where, perhaps, it
decorated a fireplace with the other cherub, which is now
lost; and from where it was removed during the extensions to
the Vatican Museums. |
The style is doubtful and
there is no lack of opinions that hold that the fragment is
a copy from the early 1800's carried out by the artist,
Jean-BaptistWicar.
He was commissioned by the academy of San Luca to inspect
the fresco in Sant'Agostino in view of its restoration and
could, therefore, have made a copy which later came to its
current home. |
