The History of the Term Academy Explained in “Academies...

The article â€Å"Academies of Art; Past and Present† by Nikolaus (1973) encompasses the history of academies in general. Beginning from the Plato’s time, the term â€Å"academy† has changed its connotations. The writing style is eloquent, yet covers the developments on the topic in every era. The writer used the article as a prologue for the reader to understand the term â€Å"academy† in order to make sense of the forthcoming chapters of the book. As the term had varied meanings, its reference in each century has different meanings and background. This summary consists of the description of the article, comments and discussion on the writing style and author’s arguments in the article. The author has discussed the evolution of the term â€Å"academy† in the†¦show more content†¦Meanwhile, Renaissance and Antiquity became a synonym of university, which was used alternatively as its Latin translation ‘academy’. As Renaissance was over and was taken over by Mannerism in art, academies became more loose and informal and grew in number in Italy. Since 1540 even the associations liked to call themselves academies, which further made the understanding of its connotation complex. In Rome the academy found by Queen Christina changed the notion further as it became center of activities like reading and criticizing poetry, literature, performing drama and comedy plays. The author focused the meanings of academy getting broader. Feastings organized by peasants, lecturing, discussions and research by scholars were added aims to the academies in Italy. However the term was never used for the entire university or a school. In schools academies were re ferred as groups of students tutored privately by some noblemen. This spread in the use of academies affected the art abundantly after the Mannerism took over. Artists started to specialize in various genre of art i.e. still life, folk life, water color etc. in contrast with Renaissance academies the Mannerism academies were organized, with elaborated rules. The history of the term academy is important, as the writer emphasized, in order to