«Poiché l’Academie assottigliano gli ingegni et li fanno più accorti e vivaci»: Educational Models of the Accademia del Disegno in Rome

This contribution focuses on the analysis of the educational models underlying the original project of the Accademia del Disegno in Rome as it was outlined by its first principe Federico Zuccari in his inaugural speech and in the statutes reported in the well-known volume Origine et Progresso dell’Academia del Dissegno, de’ Pittori, Scultori et Architetti di Roma, edited by the first secretary of the Accademia Romano Alberti and printed in 1604. In pursuing this goal, an attempt is made to compare the Accademia’s pedagogical approach with that proposed of other educational, religious and welfare institutions present in the Roman context and in the Italian peninsula in order to identify the cultural paradigms that contributed to the institution of the Accademia’s educational plan at the time of its foundation.