Accademia di Belle Arti of Venice and “gli autori del miglior tempo” Tiziano, Tintoretto, Veronese… Between Teaching, Celebration, Memory and Promotion

Abstract

Between 1807 and 1856, the Royal Academy of Art in Venice played a particularly active role in the cultural life of the city. Prominent figures such as Pietro Edwards, Leopoldo Cicognara and Pietro Estense Selvatico, deeply committed to the transmission of the memory of the great Venetian masters, dedicated themselves to collect many venetian masterpieces not only to preserve them from alienation and destruction but even to increase the Accademia Gallery. The main aim of this article is to discover how and at what extent the paintings of the Venetian masters that had become part of the gallery in the first decades of the XIX century, had been copied by students, academics and contemporary painters to satisfy the ambitious expectations of famous collectors and publishers.