Palazzo Carpegna Seat Of The Academy Of Saint Luke In Rome, Italy Editorial Photo

The Academic Library of Palazzo Carpegna seat of the Academy of Saint Luke located in the Piazza dell`Accademia di San Luca near the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy. The library, started with the beginning of the Academy, owns among others the complete collection of etchings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi and four books “About the symmetry of human bodies” by Albrecht Durer. The Academy was founded in 1577 as an association of artists in Rome with the purpose of elevating the work of `artists`, which included painters, sculptors and architects, above that of mere craftsmen. The Academy is still active. From the very beginning, the statutes of the Academy directed that each candidate-academician had to donate a work of his art in perpetual memory and, later, a portrait. Thus the Academy has accumulated a unique collection of paintings and sculptures, including about 500 portraits, as well as an outstanding collection of drawings, two libraries and the historical archive. The prìncipi directors of the institution have included some of the pre-eminent painters of the 17th century, like Domenichino, Bernini, Pietro da Cortona