Bando per l’osservanza degli Statuti dell’Accademia del Disegno della città di Firenze

Topped by the grand ducal crown, the Medici coat of arms dominates the frontispiece of the cinquecentina, while two allegorical figures of Prudence and Temperance – the attributes of Francesco I who, in 1574, had become the second Grand Duke of Tuscany – appear at the sides. When referring to the figure of Francesco I de’ Medici, the theological virtues of Prudence and Temperance must be seen not only as moral virtues, but as aptitudes that the alchemist sovereign needs to have: Prudence in order to understand the mysteries of Nature, and Temperance in order to govern passions and combine the natural elements while exercising the necessary restraint.

The volume was printed in Florence in 1585 by the Marescotti family, which had succeeded the Torrentinos as the Grand Duke’s official printers.

The Compagnia di San Luca may be considered the original nucleus of Accademia delle Arti e del Disegno. Arising in the mid-14th century, the guild included numerous artists, like Bemozzo Gozzoli, Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Michelangiolo, and so on, with purposes of mutual material and spiritual aid. In 1563, it was transformed into and refounded as Accademia delle Arti e del Disegno, thanks to the initiative of Giorgio Vasari and Don Vincenzo Borghini.

A group of artists – Francesco di Giuliano da Sangallo, Giorgio Vasari, Agnolo di Cosimo Bronzini, Pierfrancesco di Jacopo di Sandro, and Michele di Jacopo di Ridolfo – was tasked with drawing up the Accademia’s statute.

The Accademia was founded as a body for deciding as to the execution of public works relating to the three arts; its ordinary activity was directed in chapters. Cosimo I exercised patronage over the Accademia but political power was wielded through the control of a lieutenant (Luogotenente) appointed by the Grand Duke.

The Accademia’s legal foundations were the chapters of January and July 1563 which reformed the status of artists, decoupling them from the Medieval conception of the guild; until that time, painters had been grouped with the Arte dei Medici e degli Speziali (the guild of physicians, apothecaries, and spice merchants), since the grinding and mixing of pigments associated them with those professions; meanwhile sculptors and architects belonged to the Arte dei Maestri di Pietra e Legname (the guild of master stonemasons and woodcarvers). The new chapters unified the three disciplines of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture under the concept of Drawing, considered to be the original creative inspiration born from the artist’s mind.

This regulatory activity culminated in the Statutes of April 1585 which, beginning with the election and authority of the Luogotenente and consuls, defined the public offices in precise terms, while identifying their specific responsibilities. The Accademia secured the title of University, which is to say an association or corporation endowed with legal personality, thus obtaining its own a civil and administrative jurisdiction.

That same year, the ordinances (bandi) for the observation of the Statutes were published, imposing rigorous compliance with the new corporative and academic rules. The bando established that anyone in the city or surrounding area (contado) who wished to practise art had to enrol and pay a tax. Fines of 50 lire were levied on those who practised art unlawfully, or who breached the Accademia’s statutes.