Academy of Fine Arts Pietro Vannucci

Institution founded in 1573, as certified by the document “Principio dell’Academia del Disegno” (“Origin of the Academy of Drawing”), preserved in manuscript in the Biblioteca Augusta of Perugia.

The statutory reform was led by Baldassarre Orsini at the end of the XVIII century and reorganized from a didactic point of view at the beginning of XIX century. The teaching method was reformed by Tommaso Minardi. The Academy has always been intimately related to the cultural city life. Transferred from Sant’Angelo della Pace’s church to the ex convent of Montemorcino Nuovo, it was later relocated to the XIV century convent of San Francesco al Prato, where it is currently set; it is rich in a historical and artistic patrimony of inestimable value. Particularly interesting is the Gipsoteca (plasters gallery), which consists also of authentic plaster calques which were produced, among the many artists, on the works of art by Luca Della Robbia, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Antonio Canova.

The Academy is ruled by an academic Board and an administration Board that embody the expression of a very important academic teaching wing, among which we can find many prestigious names: Pablo Picasso, Renzo Piano, Oliviero Toscani.

From an educational point of view, the Academy has the authority to release diplomas with the value of Bachelor’s degree (three-year courses of Design, Painting, Scenography, Sculpture) and Master’s degree (two-year specialization courses of Visual Arts with a major in Painting, Scenography, Sculpture).