New-York tribune., 1905-07-09
TIE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME

Benevolence for educational purposes is in the
air. Millions have been spent on schools
and colleges, but millions more are needed and
how generously they provided has been
clearly shown by the recent splendid gifts made
TO Harvard, Yale and the General Education
Board. An equally significant episode is the
success with which subscriptions have been
| raised for the American Academy of Fine Arts
in Rome. The fund was started only last Janu-
airy, but already 1t Is within 100000 of the
81. 100000 required. It is hoped, rather 1t
is confidently expected, that the sum lacking
will be supplied with little delay. 1t could not
be spent upon better cause
When this Roman scheme was originated. in
1894 it had an exclusively architectural Charac
ter. Three years later its scope enlarged
so as to include painters, sculptors and musi-
clans among its benef1ciaries, and early in the
present year a bill was passed at Washington
incorporating the academy along lines which
set it once for all a footing with the most
liberal agencies of national progress here and
abroad. The aim of the founders-amOng
whom the distinguished architect Mr.. Charles
F. McKim is to be hOnored beyond the meas
ure due simply to the office of president which
he holds-is succinctly stated In the bill. They
have undertaken to establish and maintain:
An institution to promote the study and prac-
tice of the fine arts, and to aid and stimulate
the education and training of architects, paint
ers sculptors and other artists, by enabling such
citizens of the United States as shall be selected
by competition from among those who have
passed with honor through leading technical
schools or have been equally well qualified by
private instruction or study to develop their
powers and complete their training under the
most favorable conditions Of direction and sur
roundngs.
Obviously, sound programme, spelling en-
couragement. system, practically. But it is
more than sound, it is positively inspiring be-
cause it spells, above all things, Rome
Many a student would doubtless prefer to see
it spell Paris. Because technique is indispen-
| sable it has been made a fetch in some quar-
ters. and there be those who imagine that ser
viceable technique can be acquired only in the
French capital. Even IL this were true-and IL
Is far from being trle-the unique value of
the idea embodied in the academy in Rome
would remain undiminished. That idea is not
| one of rudlmentary instruction but one Of in
tellectua and spiritual stimulus it looks to the
development of artists technique, but II
| looks much more TO the training of his mind
| and to the expansion of his imagination 1t is
In Paris that the French teach their young ar
lists how TO the tools of their profession. 1t
| is in Rome, at the Villa Medici that they main
tain their best men for an extended period, dur
ing which the latter are supposed TO learn what
to do with the proficiency they have gained at
home. Why? Because in Rome, more than in
any other city in the world, the very air is sat
| grated with the beauty of art.
The young painter who fancies that all he has
| 10 do is to handle his brushes with authority
may be dubious about the lessons of Rome.
| they are not lessons of technique, so of what
avail they? Let him look for an answer
at the history of Ingres. 1t was not Rome that
made him master of pure draughtsmanship
and memorable exempIar of the classical ideal;
he had chosen his meter before he went TO Italy.
But it was Rome that so cultivated his sense OF
beauty that read of his wife's covering his
| face with her cloak in the streets to spare
him the pain Of seeing an ugly passerby. Looked
at from the point of view of human sympathy
the anecdOte has its weak spot, no doubt, but
| for the artist at the most impressiOnable stage
of his career its point is IL wise dued.
That is the great gift of Rome-a Strengthening
and publication of the sense of beauty. To
| live and work amid its monuments of architect
| ure, sculpture and painting is to breathe finer
air. to look at art in a larger perspective, 10
feel and TO think higher plane. and to
! press yourself in nobler terms That is why the
academy for which Mr.. McKim and his col
leagues have unsclfshly and effectively
labOred deserves the cordial support of all who
| are interested in the growth of American art
That art will lose nothing OF its individuality
! from contact with Italian precedent On the
contrary, it is far mere likely TO preserve it's
integrity in Rome than in Paris, for the reason
that there is such Of personalities on the
banks Of the Tiber you find on the banks OF
the Seine. In Paris the student passes quickly
into the camp of this that master, subjects
himself 10 The inference of an idiOSyncraSy
rather than that OF style. and follows de
vOtedly the tendency OF his comrades to be
modern at all hazards that he forgets the
priceless teachings of the past In Rome he
sits at the feet OF the immOrtalS who lead him
TO the acquisition of principles which. i'm their
perfection. know no date. He returns from the
one city strengthened i'll technique: he returns
from the other strengthened also in soul. Is
! this impOnderable addition To his resources
worth while? IT is worth while if American
I art is TO rest its claim TO honor in the last re-
sort. As much upon imagination. upon brains.
rs upon the perfectinG of technical processes.
| II the architecture of the Italian Renaissance
has been more potent than any other in trans
| forming the character of our public and private
| buildings il has been for the reason that that
architecture is a wesprng of good taste: IL
| fixes the students mind on immutable laws. il
famarizes him with ideas of proportion and
| refinement and. at the same time leaves him
! peculiarly free to develop his own genius Ii is
the same in painting and in sculpture Rome
does not give artist manner: in its auster-
ity. in its grandeur in its strangely impersonal
| beauty II guides him, as nothing else win guide
him, 10 the secret of style.
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