Academy of San Carlos - History

History

The Academy of San Carlos was initially founded in 1781 under the name of the School of Engraving. From that time to the present, it has been renamed many times to The Royal Academy of the Three Noble Arts of San Carlos (Real Academia de la Tres Nobles Artes de San Carlos) (1783), Academia Nacional de San Carlos de México (1821); Academia Imperial de San Carlos de México (1863); Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (1867) and Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (1929).

Mexican painter Miguel Cabrera iterated the need for an art academy as early as 1753 but attempts by him and other prominent Mexican artists of the time to gain royal permission for such was never obtained. The School of Engraving was begun later in the building that used to be the mint, and would later become the modern-day National Museum of Cultures. Ten years later, it would moved to the former Amor de Dios Hospital, where it remains to this day. The street it is located on was renamed from Amor de Dios Street to Academia Street in its honor.

The Academy was originally sponsored by the Spanish Crown and a number of private patrons. The academy was inaugurated on 4 November 1781 on the saint's day of King Carlos III, operating for its first ten years in the old mint building (now the National Museum of Cultures). However, it did not obtain its royal seal until 1783 and was not fully functional until 1785. The school moved into the old "Hospital del Amor de Dios" building in 1791, where it remained ever since. The academy was the first major art institution in the Americas.

The school's first director, Italian Jeronimo Antonio Gil was appointed by Carlos III and gathered prominent artists of the day including José de Alcíbar, Santiago Sandoval, Juan Sáenz, Manuel Tolsá and Rafael Ximeno y Planes. Tolsá and Ximeno would later stay on to become directors of the school. The new school began to promote Neoclassicism, focusing on Greek and Roman art and architecture, advocating European-style training of its artists. To this end, plaster casts of classic Greek and Roman statues were brought to Mexico from Europe for students to study.

Since its founding, it attracted the country's best artists, and was a force behind the abandonment of the Baroque style in Mexico, which had already gone out-of-fashion in Europe.

In the early 19th century, the academy was closed for a short time due to the Mexican War of Independence. When it reopened, it was renamed the National Academy of San Carlos and enjoyed the new government's preference for Neoclassicism, as it considered the Baroque reminiscent of colonialism. Despite the school's association with the independent Mexican government, Emperor Maximilian I (installed in Mexico by the French) protected the school during his reign, although interestingly enough, foreign artists were shunned here. When Benito Juárez ousted the emperor and regained the presidency of Mexico, he was reluctant to support the school and its European influence, which he considered to be a vestige of colonialism.

The academy continued to advocate classic, European-style training of its artists until the 1913. In this year, a student and teacher strike advocating a more modern approach ousted director Antonio Rivas Mercado. It was also partially integrated into University of Mexico (now UNAM) at this time, although it initially kept a large degree of autonomy. In 1929, the architecture program was separated from the rest of the academy, and in 1953, this department was moved to the newly-built campus of UNAM in the south of the city. The remaining programs in painting, sculpture and engraving were renamed National School of Expressive Arts Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas. Later, the undergraduate fine arts programs were moved to a facility in Xochimilco, leaving only some graduate programs in the original Academy of San Carlos building.