The Accademia Clementina

The first public art school in Bologna was founded in 1710 thanks to some of the most important artists in the city and the support of scientist Luigi Ferdinando Marsili. It took the name of Pope Clement XI Albani, who officially endorsed it in 1711. The academy was instrumental in preserving the artistic heritage of the city.

This section displays the self-portraits of certain Clementine academics  like Cristoforo Terzi, pupil of Giuseppe Maria Crespi, depicting himself in a spontaneous manner, or Jacopo Alessandro Calvi who through a profusion of silky surfaces presents to the spectator the sketch of his european triumph, Wessel’s Judgment Day.

Nevertheless you can also find renouned independant painters from the academy such as Luigi Crespi – son of Giuseppe – always quarrelling with the institution, or Lucia Casalini Torelli who displayed her painter’s tools along with clothes, jewels and a formal headdress.

You can also see prize-winning artifacts from painting and sculpture competitions which the academy orchestrated : a drawing by young Giuseppe Pedretti (1728) who was then still perpetuating Guido Reni’s heritage, and another one by Nicolò Bertuzzi (1734) already brimming with a careless atmosphere.

The terracotta bas-reliefs are a striking testimony to the various styles found in Bologna throughout the century. The master of late baroque, Giuseppe Maria Mazza, and upcoming star Angelo Gabriello Piò, soon coexisting in harmony with european rococo, are the leading forces of the first generations of sculptors participating in the Clementine contests : Bolognini, Lollini and Jansens (1727-1729). At the midpoint of the century, Gaetano Gandolfi takes inspiration from nature and antique marbles. In 1770, Giacomo Rossi looks towards Antiquity through an oniric lense.