Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli

The Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli (Naples Academy of Fine Arts) is a university-level art school in Naples. In the past it has been known as the Reale Istituto di Belle Arti and the Reale Accademia di Belle Arti. Founded by King Charles VII of Naples in 1752, it is one of the oldest art schools in Italy, and offers various levels of study up to and including the equivalent of an Italian laurea (the country's main post-secondary academic degree). It is located one block south of the church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli, on the via of the latter church's name. History The academy was founded in 1752 by Charles VII of Naples and had its origins in two schools, the Accademia del Disegno (Academy of Drawing) and the Accademia del Nudo (Academy of the Nude). It was originally housed in buildings attached to the church of San Carlo alle Mortelle. For many years its administration remained under the control of the Reale Laboratorio delle Pietre Dure (Royal Gemstone Laboratory) and the Reale Fabbrica degli Arazzi (Royal Tapestry Factory). Under Joseph Napoleon, King of Naples from 1806 to June 1808, it was given the name Reale Accademia di Belle Arti. Reforms in 1822 resulted in a name change to the Reale Istituto di Belle Arti, a name it would retain until 1923, when the Gentile reform of the Italian educational system, restored it to Reale Accademia di Belle Arti. With the unification of Italy in 1861, the school was reconstituted with its own administration led by its principal professors and subject to the Ministry of Public Education. In the mid-1860s, after a period in the Palazzo degli Studi (formerly the seat of the University of Naples and now the Naples National Archaeological Museum), the academy moved to its present site, a large building on the Via Santa Maria di Costantinopoli designed in the neo-renaissance style by Enrico Alvino. It had been converted from an 18th-century convent attached to the church of San Giovanni Battista delle Monache and was part of a large-scale urban development project led by Alvino and Francesco Saponieri (later Director of the Accademia di Belle Arti). The academy's school of architecture, highly active in the 19th century, was transferred to the University of Naples in 1935. The academy closed during World War II, and from 1943 until the end of the war, its building was occupied by Allied troops.