Evening star., 1897-04-10
WORK
An Exhibition of the American Academy in
Rome.
The Doors of the Cosmos Club to He
Again Thrown Open
to Guests.

for an exhibition of the American Academy
in Rome drawings exhibited by the Wash
ington Chapter, American Institute of Ar
chitects, and the Washington Architectural
Club. Admission will be by card and the
exhibition, which promises to be a most
attractive one, will last from April II to
II, inclusive. from 10 to 5 o'clock each day.
The American Institute in Rome, although
1t has only been in existence for couple
of years. promises great things for the
future and has already accomplished much
good. That the United States might not
lag behind other countries in the matter Of
establishing academies in Rome for the
higher education in the arts, steps were
taken during the year 1895 by a committee
composed of representatives of the Ameri-
can School of Architecture in Rome, the
National Society of Sculptors and the Soci-
ETY. of Mural Painters, to form an Academy
at Rome along the lines of the French
Academy in the Villa Medici. Thanks to
the enthusiasm and unanimity of opinion in
the committee these efforts have been
crowned with an unexpected degree of sue
cess, and the departure in December last of
The beneficiary of the Lazarus fund to join
flS confrereS in architecture and sculpture,
already established in the Villa DELI Aurora
in Rome. will be followed. 1t is hoped, by
the early foundation of a scholarship for
the study of music.
Home of the American Academy.
The Villa dell Aurora, the home of the
American Academy and once part of the
famous Villa Ludovisi, is situated upoli
the Pincian HILL not far from the Villa
Medici. 1t rises from a terrace elevated
some twenty feet above the surrounding
streets, and planted with trees in the
midst of garden after designs by LIE
Notre.
The advantages Rome has to offer to
students of the allied arts need net be
urged. What with its architectural and
sculptural monuments. its mural paintings,
its galleries filled with the chef d'oeuvres
of every epoch. other city offers such
field for study or atmosphere SO re-
pete with the best precedents. More
over, 1t is believed that now for tine first
time American students of architecture,
painting and sculpture are brought under
the same roof, and will profit greatly by
their common life and free intercourse with
each other, and thus help to bring about
that union of the arts and their ntell-
gent cooperation which, in the end, pro-
duce the noblest results
1t was in October of the year 1895 that
the School of Architecture was installed
in the villa. This was the first step in
the projected Academy of Architecture
Painting. Sculpture and Music. The archi-
tectural department. first upon the field,
was soon followed by those Of sculpture and
painting, and is supported at present in
the absence of a permanent fund by the
contributions of members of the archi-
tectural profession.
The Course of Study.
The course of study is one of observation
and research rather than of design, aiming
to form correct taste and to impress up
on the mind, by daily contact with great
examples, those principles which ere es-
sential to the enduring quality in archi-
lecture. To this end the founders believed
it to be of the utmost importance for an
architect before he begins his professional
career. to study thoroughly on the spot the
n anti
works of the Italian renaissance as are
worthy of being considered their success
SorS. The examples best suited to this
purpose are those of Greece and Italy. Ex-
petitions are taken to the former country
and to Sicily, but the headquarters of the
department are established at Rome,
rather than at Athens, because of the
greater amount of material there at hand
of use to the modern architectural stu
dent not only in the art OF architecture
itself. but in that of mural painting and in
the decorative arts, including architectural
sculpture.
Mural Decorations.
While particular attention is devoted to
the works of the great mural painters of
the renaissance, it is not to be forgotten
that Rome is full of decorative work be-
longing to other epochs and executed in
different materials, that can be studied to
the great advantage of mural painter
1t will suffice to mention the frescoes of
the ancients, such as can be seen on the
Palatine, in the painted tomb on the Via
Latina, in Livia's Villa at Prma Porta.
The early Christian basilicaS are replete
with beautiful decorative schemes. The
evolution of mosaic from the days of the
Romans down to modern times is admir-
ably illustrated In Rome, and, together with
the "Cosmati' work" can be studied with
profit. These are but 4 portion of tine
many things that make Rome the best
school for the mural painter.