Charles Heathcote Tatham and the Accademia di S. Luca, Rome

• Autores: Frank Salmon
• Localización: Burlington magazine, ISSN 0007-6287, Vol. 140, Nº 1139, 1998, págs. 85-92
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In the late spring of 1796, with Napoleon's armies already occupying parts of northern Italy, the English architectural student Charles Heathcote Tatham was in the process of organising his election to the Accademia di S. Luca in Rome prior to his hurried departure from the city. By seeking affiliation with an Italian fine arts academy, Tatham was following in the footsteps of a number of British students who had visited Italy in the second half of the eighteenth century, but the nature of such Italian academic membership remains widely misunderstood.' In the latest edition of the standard history of British architecture in this period, for example, it is stated that 'from Adam to Soane there is a continuous tradition of participation by young Britons in the current architectural thought of the Italian academies'.2 Tatham's case, which is by far the best documented, suggests that such memberships were in fact conceived by British architects almost entirely in terms of the honorary status and self-publicity they conferred at a time of emerging professionalism. The particular circumstances of Tatham's election in Rome also illuminate the uncertain relationship which existed between an historic Italian academy and more recently founded British fine arts institutions, such as the Royal Academy and the Architects' Club. Moreover, a broader survey of the records of the Accademia di S. Luca suggests that Tatham's dealings with the institution were typical of those of British later eight- eenth-century artists.