Gli Accademici Riaccesi: arte, poesia, collezionismo nella prima metà del XVII secolo | The Accademici Riaccesi: Art, Poetry, Collecting in the First Half of the 17th Century

Abstract

The Accademia dei Riaccesi, founded in Palermo under the patronage of Viceroy Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia in 1622, was the most important literary and artistic congregation in Sicily in the 17th century. A gathering place for poets and artists, united under the motto A pro’ degli altri (“For the benefit of others”), the academy was founded as a continuation of the Accesi, established in the previous century, also under the auspices of the viceregal government. The themes explored by the association, based on the relationship between image and word, explored aspects of wisdom in culture under the guise of a “pan-academism” that had permeated world history since its creation. From this point of view, the Syntagmata Septem de Academia, published by Girolamo Matranga in Palermo in 1637, are exemplary. From the title page onwards, they are presented as the programmatic text of the literary society. The tragic death in 1647 of the painter Pietro Novelli – a sort of “shadow academic” of the Riaccesi – and the subsequent decease of the founder Carlo Maria Ventimiglia e Ruiz, led to a weakening of the original spirit of the congregation and its gradual disappearance at the end of the 17th century.