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24-810: The Casa de Velázquez is a French school in Spain modelled on the Villa Médicis in Rome , and Villa Abd-el-Tif in Algeria . Like the Prix de Rome bursary for residence at the Villa Médicis and the defunct Prix Abd-el-Tif bursary for residence at the Villa Abd-el-Tif , bursaries are awarded. The idea for a similar villa in Spain was raised in 1916 by the composer Charles-Marie Widor who at

48-555: A décor that was a homage to the past and, at the same time, radically contemporary: The mysterious melancholic decor he created for Villa Medici has become, in turn, historic and was undergoing a critical restoration campaign in 2016. Work continued under the direction of the previous director, Richard Peduzzi , and the Villa Medici resumed organizing exhibitions and shows created by its artists in residence. The Academy continues its programme of inviting young artists, who receive

72-504: A competition but by application, and their stays generally vary from six to eighteen months. Between 1961 and 1967, the artist Balthus , then at the head of the Academy, carried out a vast restoration campaign of the palace and its gardens, providing them with modern equipment. Balthus participated “hands-on” in all the phases of the construction. Where the historic décor had disappeared, Balthus proposed personal alternatives. He invented

96-475: A stipend to spend twelve months in Rome, exhibiting their work. These artists-in-residence are known as pensionnaires. The French word ‘ pension ’ refers to the room & board these, generally young and promising, artists receive. The Villa Medici hosts several guest rooms, and when pensionnaires or other official guests do not use these, they are open to the general public. Several structures base their style on

120-541: A vineyard here and had begun improvements to the villa under the direction of the Florentine Nanni Lippi , who had died however before work had proceeded far. The new proprietors commissioned Annibale Lippi , the late architect's son, to continue work. Interventions by Michelangelo are a tradition. In 1576, the property was acquired by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici , who finished the structure to designs by Bartolomeo Ammanati . The Villa Medici became

144-551: A virtual open-air museum. A series of grand gardens recalled the botanical gardens created at Pisa and at Florence by the Cardinal's father Cosimo I de' Medici , sheltered in plantations of pines, cypresses and oaks. Ferdinando de' Medici had a studiolo , a retreat for study and contemplation, built to the north east of the garden above the Aurelian wall. Now, these rooms look onto Borghese Gardens but would then have had views over

168-649: The French Academy in Rome to the Villa Medici to preserve an institution once threatened by the French Revolution . At first, the villa and its gardens were sad, and they had to be renovated to house the winners of the Prix de Rome . In this way, he hoped to retain for young French artists the opportunity to see and copy the masterpieces of antiquity and the Renaissance . The young architect Auguste-Henri-Victor Grandjean de Montigny undertook

192-625: The Capranica and the della Valle collections. An engraving detailing the arrangement of statues before 1562 was documented by Galassi Alghisi . Three works that arrived at the Villa Medici under Cardinal Fernando, ranked with the most famous in the city: the Niobe Group and the Wrestlers , both discovered in 1583 and immediately purchased by Cardinal Ferdinando, and the Arrotino . When

216-570: The Cardinal succeeded as Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1587, his elder brother having died, he satisfied himself with plaster copies of his Niobe Group, in full knowledge of the prestige that accrued to the Medici by keeping such a magnificent collection in the European city whose significance far surpassed that of their capital. The Medici lions was completed in 1598, and the Medici Vase entered

240-778: The Loggia del Lione of the Villa Medici in the Pincio district of Rome; dimensions of a palace resembling Palace of Raphael in Rome; the construction by Michelangelo in St Peter's including his putative design without Carlo Maderno 's facade and showing the adjacent Vatican palace at the time (the obelisk in the position not reached till the 1580s); House by Bramante in Rome; San Giovanni Laterano with adjacent Lateran Palace ; Facade, cross section, and courtyard of Palazzo Farnese with Farnese Hercules; Senate house on Capitoline Hill;

264-458: The Roman countryside. These two rooms were only uncovered in 1985 by the restorer Geraldine Albers: the concealing whitewash had protected and conserved the superb fresco decoration carried out by Jacopo Zucchi in 1576 and 1577. Among the striking assemblage of Roman sculptures in the villa were some one hundred seventy pieces bought from two Roman collections that had come together through marriage,

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288-594: The Villa Medici to the Ministry of Culture and the French State. From that time on, the borders no longer belonged solely to the traditional disciplines (painting, sculpture, architecture, metal engraving, precious-stone engraving, musical composition, etc.) but also to new or previously neglected artistic fields (art history, archaeology, literature, stagecraft, photography, movies, video, art restoration , writing and even cooking.) Artists are no longer recruited by

312-672: The Villa Medici was one of the most elegant and worldly settings in Rome, the seat of the Grand Dukes' embassy to the Holy See. When the male line of the Medici died out in 1737, the villa passed to the house of Lorraine and, briefly in Napoleonic times, to the Kingdom of Etruria . In this manner, Napoleon Bonaparte came into possession of the Villa Medici, which he transferred to the French Academy at Rome . Subsequently, it housed

336-656: The collection at the Villa, followed by the Venus de' Medici by the 1630s; the Medici sculptures were not removed to Florence until the eighteenth century. Then, the antiquities from the Villa Medici formed the nucleus of the collection of antiquities in the Uffizi , and Florence began to figure on the European Grand Tour . The fountain in front of the Villa Medici is formed from a red granite vase from ancient Rome. It

360-418: The first among Medici properties in Rome, intended to give concrete expression to the ascendancy of the Medici among Italian princes and assert their permanent presence in Rome. Under the Cardinal's insistence, Ammanati incorporated into the design Roman bas-reliefs and statues that were coming to sight with almost every spadeful of earth, with the result that the facades of the Villa Medici, as it now was, became

384-755: The renovation. The competition was interrupted during the First World War, and Benito Mussolini confiscated the villa in 1941, forcing the Academy of France in Rome to withdraw until 1945. The competition and the Prix de Rome were abolished in 1968 by André Malraux , the French Minister of Culture . The Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Institut de France then lost their guardianship of

408-510: The site of the Villa Medici was part of the gardens of Lucullus , which passed into the hands of the Imperial family with Messalina , who was murdered in the villa. In 1564, when the nephews of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of Montepulciano acquired the property, it had long been abandoned to viticulture . The sole dwelling was the Casina of Cardinale Marcello Crescenzi , who had maintained

432-652: The stairs to the courtyard inspired Bernard Foucquet 's bronze lions at the Lejonbacken (lion slope) on the northern side of the Royal Palace in Stockholm from 1700 to 1704. Galassi Alghisi Galasso Alghisi (1523–1573) was an Italian architect, military engineer and author of the Renaissance period. He is also known as Galeazzo Alghisi or Galeazzo da Carpi . Born in Carpi , near Modena , he

456-583: The time was secretary of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France . The idea met with support of Alfonso XIII who himself selected a site in Madrid which was ceded to France. The Foundation was legally founded in 1920, adapted by the architect Léon Chifflot , and opened for the first French artists in 1929. The villa was further enlarged by architect Camille Lefèvre (1876-1946) up to 1935. It

480-706: The villa. Architect Edward Lippincott Tilton designed the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs, Colorado in 1893. Philanthropist James H. Dooley had a mansion called Swannanoa built on Rockfish Gap, Virginia in 1912. The NYC architectural firm Schultze and Weaver modeled the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida after the Villa for the hotel's second reconstruction, which took place between 1925 and 1926. The marble Medici lions by

504-548: The winners of the prestigious Prix de Rome , under distinguished directors including Ingres and Balthus , until the prize was withdrawn in 1968. In 1656, Christina, Queen of Sweden was said to have fired one of the cannons on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo without aiming it first. The wayward ball hit the villa, destroying one of the Florentine lilies that decorated the facade. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte moved

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528-611: Was architect to the duke of Ferrara . He published a book in Venice in 1570 on fortifications . He also published an Opus on architecture, specially of buildings in Rome. It includes simple engravings showing Fonte Sista in Rome; a view of the Belvedere, vatican gardens, and an incomplete St Peter's Basilica ; the Villa d'Este in Tivoli ; the arrangements of statuary in the niches of

552-649: Was built in a Spanish Golden Age revival style, with a clear inspiration from the works of architect Juan de Herrera . In November 1936, during the Civil War, the building was bombed and severely damaged due to its location on the frontline in the siege of Madrid . It was rebuilt in a simpler style in 1959, losing its characteristic Herrerian slate-covered towers. The current director is Nancy Berthier . 40°26′27.84″N 3°43′47.51″W  /  40.4410667°N 3.7298639°W  / 40.4410667; -3.7298639 Villa M%C3%A9dicis In ancient times,

576-466: Was designed by Annibale Lippi in 1589. The view from the Villa looking over the fountain towards St Peter's in the distance has been much painted, but the trees in the foreground have now obscured the view. Like the Villa Borghese that adjoins them, the villa's gardens were far more accessible than the formal palaces such as Palazzo Farnese in the heart of the city. For a century and a half

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