The Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture
The Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture was the brainchild of painter
Charles Le Brun and was founded in 1648 under Mazarin's patronage. With its
strict hierarchical system of organisation:
director,
chancellor,
rector,
professors,
academicians and
elected members,
the Royal Academy rapidly monopolised the arts.
Up to the time of
David,
himself a product of the Academy, its
opponents were
rare, as were the painters who made a successful career outside this powerful
institution.
The
Rome Prize
confirmed the end of young artists' initial
studies and enabled the winners to go to the
French Academy in Rome
to complete their training.
Certain artists, like
Barbault or
Vernet,
who had trained in the provinces, went to Italy on their own
initiative and chose to make their career there.
To enter the ranks of the Academy, artists had to have their
admission piece accepted.
Members exhibited their works in the Louvre's
salon carré (square room)
every two years; consequently, this exhibition became known as the
Salon.
The posts of
first painters,
ordinary painter and
inspector
or inspector general of royal factories were usually reserved
for academicians.
Only the Count of Artois and Marie-Antoinette would appoint
painters who did not belong to this venerable establishment:
Moreau the Elder and
Ducreux respectively.
A few
foreign artists
were admitted to the
Royal Academy and
other Academies set up in the
provinces and abroad were often based on the Parisian model.