Historical location
When Sistus V, in 1588, allowed the transfer of the San Luca University of painters to the church
of Santa Martina, some rooms above the sacred building were given the function of classrooms and
meeting-rooms for the congregation. Before the completion of an integral reconstruction of the
Academy’s church, began in 1635 and dedicated to Santi Luca e Martina, in 1659, by request of the
painter Giovanna Garzoni, the construction of the first nucleus of the Academy’s building began.
The plan envisioned an extension of the Academy’s space into buildings and land located behind the
church of Santi Luca e Martina and at the time still under construction.
The space was adapted over time according to the needs of the institution, until new expansion and restauration were conducted by Antonio Asprucci between 1788 and 1790. Thanks both to donations and the increasing wealth of the Academy, the building was enlarged until the second half of the 1800s by encompassing nearby edifices. The architectural frame of the late 1700s remained virtually unchanged, however.
The Academy never abandoned its historical location, although it eventually became too small to contain all the collections, drawings, the libraries of Sarti ad Vico, and host the Academy’s many activities, although its reconstruction into different forms was planned more than once.
Finally, when via dell’Impero was built in the early 1930's, as the last of a long series of interventions in the new capital designed to organize Rome’s monumental district, the Academy’s building (but not the church) was expropriated and demolished.
In spite of the beginning of the reconstruction of the Academy on the remaining area in the same site under the direction of Arnaldo Foschini, Mussolini himself blocked the project in May of 1932: the reconstruction was abandoned by the end of the same year, although it had nearly reached the first floor.
In April of 1934 the seat of the Academy was transferred to the recently restored Palazzo Carpegna, where it still is today.
The space was adapted over time according to the needs of the institution, until new expansion and restauration were conducted by Antonio Asprucci between 1788 and 1790. Thanks both to donations and the increasing wealth of the Academy, the building was enlarged until the second half of the 1800s by encompassing nearby edifices. The architectural frame of the late 1700s remained virtually unchanged, however.
The Academy never abandoned its historical location, although it eventually became too small to contain all the collections, drawings, the libraries of Sarti ad Vico, and host the Academy’s many activities, although its reconstruction into different forms was planned more than once.
Finally, when via dell’Impero was built in the early 1930's, as the last of a long series of interventions in the new capital designed to organize Rome’s monumental district, the Academy’s building (but not the church) was expropriated and demolished.
In spite of the beginning of the reconstruction of the Academy on the remaining area in the same site under the direction of Arnaldo Foschini, Mussolini himself blocked the project in May of 1932: the reconstruction was abandoned by the end of the same year, although it had nearly reached the first floor.
In April of 1934 the seat of the Academy was transferred to the recently restored Palazzo Carpegna, where it still is today.
