Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara

Founded in 1769 by Duchess Maria Teresa Cybo, the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara has taught art in the city associated with marble. Its plaster collection includes gifts by Antonio Canova and casts of classical sculptures, housed in the former Cybo-Malaspina palace.

Why it matters

The academy's founding linked artistic instruction with Carrara's marble economy. It opened with schools of Sculpture and Architecture, and generations of artists trained in the city. The institution continues to teach a range of artistic disciplines.

What to notice

The former Rocca of the Cybo-Malaspina lords was reshaped into a palace and later became the academy's home. Its former court theatre serves as the aula magna. The gipsoteca includes an Apollo Belvedere cast brought from Rome in 1774, casts of the Parthenon Fates donated by Bernardo Fabbricotti in 1878, a Laocoon group and a Farnese Hercules. Canova gave the academy a bust of Clement XIII and a seated portrait of Letizia Ramolino in 1810. A plaster model by Giovanni Antonio Cybei for an equestrian monument to Francesco III d'Este dates to 1772. The marble sample room and stained glass by Galileo Chini document later additions to the complex.

Context and history

An earlier academy proposed in 1757 did not open; the duchess's decree established the institution in 1769. Its first directors were sculptor Giovanni Antonio Cybei and architect Filippo Del Medico. The academy was renamed Eugeniana during the Napoleonic period. Elisa Bonaparte assigned the former fortress palace to the school in 1810. The 1920 earthquake damaged the complex, which was restored between 1924 and 1934. The gipsoteca was catalogued and repaired from the 1980s onward.