«A lume aperto».
Estetica, storia dell’arte e prassi
artistica a Bologna tra due secoli.
La figura del Segretario dall’Accademia
Clementina all’Accademia di Belle Arti
Francesca Lui
This essay traces the institutional and intellectual role of the Secretary within Bologna’s art academies
— from the Accademia Clementina (1710) to the Accademia di Belle Arti — between the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. Beginning with Giampietro Cavazzoni Zanotti, whose decades-long tenure shaped
the academy’s classicist aesthetics and defence of Guido Reni, the study follows successive Secretaries (Carlo
Bianconi, Pietro Giordani, Cesare Masini, Luciano Scarabelli) through the Napoleonic reorganisation and
into the Restoration and Risorgimento periods. It shows how the office, envisioned by Parini as an “aesthetic
guide” for young artists, evolved into the formal chair of Critica e Storia dell’Arte, culminating in 1872 with
Enrico Panzacchi’s combined role as Secretary and professor — marking the full institutionalisation of
art-historical teaching within the Bologna academy