The first Academy of Art was founded in Florence by Giorgio Vasari, who called it the Accademia del Disegno - the academy of representation by signs. There students learnt the "arti del disegno", a term coined by Vasari, and included lectures on anatomy and geometry. Another academy, the Accademia di San Luca (named after the patron saint of painters, St. Luke), was founded a decade or so later in Rome. More so than the Florentine Accademia del Disegno, the Academia di San Luca served an educational function and was more concerned with art theory.
The Academia di San Luca later served as the model for the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture founded in France in 1648. …
