ACADEMICISM. - This term has been applied, not without a tinge of negative criticism, to that manner of understanding and teaching art which, fostered by artistic Academies (q.v.), reached its peak in the early 19th century and was identified by some with Neoclassicism. Many of its rules persisted even into the Romantic and Realist periods.
Academicism has been accused of fostering, through its theory of the ideal beauty derived from the classics, a paganizing tendency even in sacred art; of overvaluing manual skill, giving rise to the phenomenon of virtuosity; of prioritizing compositional, linear, and chiaroscuro values above all others; and of attempting to codify the rules of art, thereby promoting correctness devoid of spontaneity and invention.
These alleged shortcomings of Academicism have been cited as the cause of the numerous artistic rebellions that erupted in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Today, while not denying all validity to these criticisms, a more balanced view is taken of a movement that could draw upon famous theories (Baumgarten, Winckelmann, Lessing, Algarotti, Milizia, Cicognara) and boasted renowned artists among its followers. Moreover, some of the most modern trends, in reaction to the character assumed by art in recent decades, unconsciously revert to certain principles of the despised Academies, as when they lean toward rigorous composition and closed forms.