Brera Academy

The Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, ( _it. Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera) also known as Brera Academy (" _it. Accademia di Brera") is a public academic institution located in the city center of Milan - Italy, in via Brera 28. It was founded in 1776 by "HIM" Maria Theresa of Austria.

Overview

The main objective is to teach and research within the creative art, (painting, sculpting, graphics, photo, video etc.) and cultural historical disciplines.

Under the current italian regulations (MIUR Ministry of Education, University and Research), the Brera Academy is included in the university program in the field of the Artistic and Musical Training issuing academic diplomas level of 1° (equivalent to degree) and academic diplomas level of 2° (equivalent to graduated teacher).

In Italy is the academic institution with the highest rate of internationalization (greater than 24%), has about 3,500 students including over 850 foreigners (mostly already graduated in the origin countries) from 49 nations.

The Brera Academy maintains links and exchanges students and teachers, through the ERASMUS programme, with many European countries. Since 2006 has been invited to entertain relations with countries outside Europe, such as Japan, China, Mexico and Australia.

In 2005 the teaching of the academy has been classified by UNESCO as "A5" the same as Bocconi University. It is also regarded as one of the world’s leading academic institutions.

The current Director of the Academy (2008) is Professor Fernando De Filippi.

History

* 1572: ownership Palazzo Brera, built on the ruins of a convent of the Humiliati went to Jesuits.
** The name "Brera" derives from the German term "braida" which indicates a large grassy clearing, similar to the place where it is built namesake building that still houses the headquarters of the Academy.
* 1627-1628: the restructuring of the building was given to Francesco Maria Richini.
* 1772: is suppressed the Society of Jesus and the Palazzo Brera receives a new institutional framework, including the Brera Astronomical Observatory and the National Braidense Library (formerly founded by the Jesuits).
* 1774: ill be added to the Brera Botanical Garden.
* 1776: the Brera Academy is based by "HIM" Maria Theresa of Austria whose main purpose is "Depriving the teaching of Fine Arts to craftsmen and private artists, subject to public supervision and public opinion". The project was entrusted to architect Giuseppe Piermarini it receives, the same year the first chair of Architecture. Also in 1776 was founded, educational purposes, the Brera Art Gallery (" _it. Pinacoteca di Brera"): a collection of exemplary works for the training of students, you can copy the real paintings and plaster casts.
**The Brera Art Gallery museum of international standing, collects the most important collection in Milan today. It houses, among others, masterpieces from Bellini, Boccioni, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Hayez, Leonardo da Vinci, Mantegna, Modigliani, Picasso, Piero della Francesca, Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Tiepolo, Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese.
*1797: Napoleon Bonaparte transforms The Brera Art Gallery is a veritable museum where exhibit paintings from the territories conquered by French armed and make up the Lombard Institute of Science and Letters.
*1803: format is the Academic Council, made up of 30 members, which expands and defines teaching subjects: Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, Ornato, Engraving, Perspective, Anatomy and Artistic elements Figure. The Ornato Commission begins to play a control over public monuments similar to that of modern Superintendent of Public Works (" _it. Sopraintendenze alle Belle Arti").
*1805: launch of the annual exhibitions, which are the most important manifestation of contemporary art in Italy throughout the nineteenth century. The event provides an overview of the work of students of both works by artists in Italy and Europe. The awards made competition help to make known the name of Brera Academy of Fine Arts at European level.
*1809: to adapt the architectural complex of Palazzo Brera to its new function is demolished the fourteenth-century facade of the Church of Santa Maria di Brera, attributed to Giovanni di Balduccio from Pisa. The church dedicated to the Virgin dates back to the founding of the convent of Humiliati dated around 1229–1230.
**Despite the negative opinion issued two years earlier by the Commissione of Ornato, the new Braidense Commission together with Pietro Moscati (General Director of Education) and Eugene Beauharnais (Viceroy Napoleon) accept the plan proposed by Piero Gilardoni. The common will tend to provide a wider and easier headquarters to Academy Schools of Painting and Sculpture and to enlarge the exhibition halls of the gallery above.
**After scrapping the bas-reliefs and sculptures and fragments of the facade of the portal of the Church of Santa Maria di Brera is transferred to the Museo d'Arte Antica of the Sforza Castle in Milan (where are still visible). Some fragments and three windows are incorporated in the facade of Cascina San Fedele Park of Monza. Other fragments are found in the villa Antona-Traversi of Desio.
**The works (paintings and frescoes then detached) that decorated the inside of the church, signed by Bernardo Luini, Bernardo Senale, Bartolomeo Suardi said Bramantino and Vincenzo Foppa, are now visible to the Brera Art Gallery and to the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan. Other parts of frescos attributed to the Giusto de' Menabuoi, bases of columns, capitals and wall decorations are still visible in the spaces (external and internal) to the classrooms used by the Design Department of Design and Applied Arts.
*1859: after the Napoleon III’s visit, the bronze statue "Napoleon I as a peacemaker Mars" is placed at the center of the Palazzo Brera court, on the marble pedestal designed by Luigi Bisi. The statue was commissioned by Eugene Beauharnais in 1807, previously merged in Rome around years 1811-1812 from the Antonio Canova’s model.
*1861: after the Unification of Italy, the Academy is going through a period of crisis due to the advent of photography and general refusal to copy the works of the past.
*1863: the Archaeological Museum is posted.
*1882: management Brera Art Gallery is made autonomous.
*1891: exposures become three-year, while the architectural culture makes its teaching self founding the School of Architecture
*1897-1914: Camillo Boito is president of the academy and has among its students Luca Beltrami.
*1900: Brera Art Gallery acquires the administration of the collection of modern painting.
*1923: with the reform of the school promoted by Giovanni Gentile, is set up at the next Art School. In the same period the School of Sculpture is held by Adolfo Wildt (followed Francesco Messina and Marino Marini), which has among its students two of the highest artistic renewal of Milan in the years to follow: Lucio Fontana and Fausto Melotti, while Achille Funi the chair will be set up to Fresco.
*1931: the School of Architecture is moved to the Politecnico di Milano.
*1946: in the Second World War, the Academy opens with the direction of Aldo Carpi, with Guido Ballo as a professor of Art History, in addition to the masters of sculpture Alik Cavaliere and Andrea Cascella, painting professors Mauro Reggiani, Domenico Cantatore, Pompeo Borra and Domenico Purificato.

General information

Brera Academy has risen from 4 traditional addresses to 11 triennial courses level of 1°, 19 two-year courses level of 2°, 1 advanced and 3 master. It also enabled 6 courses enabling biennial teaching in secondary schools (COBASLID), in 6 classes of competition that relate to the specific visual arts.

Brera has four 'traditional' departments:
*Decoration
*Painting
*Sculpture
*Theatre Design

and, since 1997-98, four 'experimental' ones with yearly intake limited to 20 students:
*Contemporary Sacred Art
*Restauration of Contemporary Art
*Communication and Education applied to Art
*Multimedia Communication

It is allowed to extend the course duration with one year, bringing the maximum overall course duration to five years.

Attendance of classes is compulsory. If attendance is irregular, a student’s name may be cancelled from the institution registers. Serious motives justifying absence from classes should be stated officially by the 15th of March of the academic year concerned. Otherwise one runs the risk of being excluded from exams, which may occasion the loss of one year study time.

ADMISSION OF FOREIGN CITIZENS

Foreign citizens wishing to enrol as students at the Brera Academy should present their application to the Italian Consulate in their country not later than 15 March of the year in which they intend to begin their studies at Brera.

Together with their application they should submit an educational curriculum (complete with relevant diplomas), and an indication of the course of their choice. The consular authorities will verify the equivalence of study titles and will send the translated documentation to the secretariat of the Academy.

Upon completion of this procedure, the candidate will be invited to participate in the entry examinations, which consist in a test of artistic ability pertinent to the course chosen, and a test of general cultural awareness. Foreign citizens will also have to pass a written Italian language test.

HERITAGE

It’s today heritage of Brera Academy:

*The Collection of Sculptures and Gypsum Copies
*The Historical Archive
*The Historical Fund
*The Cabinet of Drawings and Prints
*The Picture Gallery
*The Photographic Archives
*The Contemporary Art Library of the Brera Academy

Academics

1ST CYCLE DEGREE COURSES (Three-year courses)

Department of Visual Arts:
*Painting
*Sculptor
*Graphics
*Decoration

Department of Design and Applied Arts:
*Theatre Design
*Restoration
*Artistic Design for the Enterprises
*New Technologies for the Arts

Department of Communication and Art Teaching:
*Branches of Development of Cultural Heritage
*Communication and Education applied to Art

2ND CYCLE DEGREE COURSES (Two-year courses)

Department of Visual Arts:
*Painting
*Sculptor
*Graphics
*Decoration
*Anthropology and Contemporary Sacred Art Department of Design and Applied Arts:
* Theatre Design
* Costume Design
* Stage Design for Film and Television
* Restoration of Contemporary Art
* Product Design
* Fashion Design
* Multimedia Interactive and Performative Arts
* Multimedia Arts Film and Video
* Photography

Department of Communication and Art Teaching:
* Creative Communication for Cultural Heritage
* Communication and Organization for Contemporary Art

SPECIALIZATION SCHOOL (Two-year course)

In agreement with Psychiatry Faculty of the University of Pavia:
*Theory and Practice of Art Therapeutics

Notable students and professors

"in chronological order of birth"

*Giuseppe Piermarini (architect)
*Jacques-Louis David (painter)
*Ennio Quirino Visconti (archaeologist and political)
*Antonio Canova (sculptor)
*Bertel Thorvaldsen (sculptor)
*Vincenzo Camuccini (painter)
*Giuseppe Bossi (painter, draftsman, poet and writer)
*Francesco Hayez (painter)
*Carlo Ferrari (set designer)
*Raffaele Casnedi (painter)
*Cherubino Cornienti (painter)
*Baldassare Verazzi (painter)
*Camillo Boito (architect and writer)
*Emilio Magistretti (painter)
*Luca Beltrami (architect, art historian and restorer)
*Giovanni Segantini (painter)
*Medardo Rosso (sculptor)
*Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (painter)
*Adolfo Wildt (sculptor)
*Carlo Carrà (painter)
*Aldo Carpi (painter and writer)
*Antonio Sant'Elia (architect)
*Achille Funi (painter)
*Mauro Reggiani (painter)
*Pompeo Borra (painter)
*Lucio Fontana (painter, sculptor and ceramist)
*Marino Marini (sculptor)
*Fausto Melotti (sculptor)
*Gianfilippo Usellini (painter)
*Domenico Cantatore (painter and illustrator)
*Bruno Munari (painter, sculptor, designer and engraver)
*Piero Fornasetti (painter, sculptor, designer and engraver)
*Guido Ballo (art historian)
*Domenico Purificato (painter)
*Giovanni Madonini (painter)
*Andrea Cascella (sculptor, painter and ceramist)
*Oreste Carpi (painter)
*Enrico Baj (painter and sculptor)
*Arnaldo Pomodoro (sculptor)
*Alik Cavaliere (sculptor)
*Dario Fo (playwright, director, set designer, actor and Nobel Prize for Literature 1997)
*Roberto Sanesi (art historian, poet and essayist)
*Piero Manzoni (painter and sculptor)
*Vincenzo Ferrari (painter)
*Miltos Manetas (painter, multimedia artist)
*Vanessa Beecroft (painter, photographer and performer)
*Luciano Fabro (sculptor)
*Luisa Spinatelli (set and costume designer)
*Giusepe Gabellone (sculptor)
*Tito Varisco (set designer)
*Tommaso Trini (art critic)

References

* [http://www.accademiadibrera.milano.it Brera Academy official website]
* [http://www.miur.it/0004Alta_F/index_cf4.htm MIUR Ministry of Education, University and Research - Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca - Alta Formazione Artistica e Musicale] it icon
* [http://www.corriere.it/vivimilano/speciali/2006/10_Ottobre/09/brera.shtml Brera, disfigured Canova’s statue] by "Corriere della Sera" of October 10, 2006 it icon

* [http://www.corriere.it/cronache/07_dicembre_17/brera_degrado_accademia_40fbc20c-ace7-11dc-b79e-0003ba99c53b.shtml Graffiti and mutilated statues, degradation of Brera] by "Corriere della Sera" of December 19, 2007 it icon

Address

*Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera - Via Brera 28 20121 Milano Italia

See also

*Pinacoteca di Brera
*Academy of Fine Arts

External links

Palazzo Brera Institutions ("in Italian")
* [http://www.brera.beniculturali.it/HomePage Brera Art Gallery - Pinacoteca di Brera]
* [http://www.braidense.it/ National Braidense Library - Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense]
* [http://www.istitutolombardo.it/ Lombard Institute of Science and Letters - Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere]
* [http://www.brera.unimi.it/museo/ Brera Astronomical Observatory and Botanical Garden - Museo Astronomico e Orto Botanico di Brera]
* [http://www.amicidibrera.milano.it Friends of Brera and the Milanese museums - Amici di Brera]