The British School at Rome

Foundation date: 25 October 1899

Function: Art study

Policy: From 1912 the school had a dual purpose. First to sustain its old activities researching and publishing on classical archaeology through the Faculty of Archaeology, History and Letters. Second to manage a programme of three year scholarships appointed and overseen by separate faculties of painting, sculpture and architecture (engraving was added in 1921). Each scholar to be residential in purpose-built, live-in studios.

History or description: The British School in Rome grew out of the British School at Athens (founded in 1884). From 1907-8 the School provided a base for students on travelling scholarships from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Royal College of Art and other art colleges.

Around 1909 there were discussions in London about founding a central national school of architecture, painting and sculpture. According to the president of the RIBA:

'The scheme ought to minimise the defects of the present system of travelling scholarship which often lacked aim, supervision, and record. An essential part of the scheme was a residential hostel: owing to the high standard of efficiency to be exacted from the students before joining, it would not be necessary to have a resident architectural professor: it would however require a warden. The promoters of the scheme desired to work in co-operation with existing institutions, and the possibility of the harmonious fusion of all the artistic and learned interests in Rome in one institution was under consideration.'

This plan is close to the scheme of Rome Scholarships that was implemented in 1911-2 after extensive discussion with the Royal Academy, the RIBA, the Royal Society of British Sculptors and teachers at leading art colleges. The Royal Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition had also been thinking of establishing a scholarship scheme and they provided the funding to support the new programme at the British School at Rome. In about 1914 the sum provided for the scholarships was £2,000 (Year's Art (1914), p. 357).

An important step in the realisation of the enlarged British School at Rome and founding of the scholarships was the decision to build a new home for the school on the site of the pavilion for the International Exhibition in Rome of 1911 at the Valle Giulia. This entailed obtaining a Royal Charter of Incorporation for the British School which was approved on 22 June 1912. The new building on the Valle Giulia site was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and was completed by 1916.

Citing this record

'The British School at Rome', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib2_1221665782, accessed 29 May 2023]