The Prix de Rome
Initially created (for painters and sculptors) in 1666 by Colbert, minister to Louis XIV, the Prix de Rome opened to architecture in 1720, then to music in 1803, under the influence of Napoleon. The prize was a subsidised residency in Rome (at the Palazzo Mancini at first, later at the Villa Medici). Thus, after graduation, the finest young French artists were brought into contact with Italian art, deemed superior to all others. For musicians, the competition was in two stages: the first consisted of writing exercises in counterpoint (from the 1830s, a strict fugue) and a chorus with orchestra. The judges were members of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and the five or six candidates selected went on to the second round. For thirty days or so they were ‘en loge’; during that time they were expected to produce a cantata to a set libretto. At first the cantatas, in the old Baroque mould, were for one voice, and between 1831 and 1838 sometimes for two voices. From 1839 the libretto involved three characters, whose fates were often tragic. The Prix de Rome ceased to exist in 1968.
![Le Monde illustré, 1863/05/09 [Prix de Rome]](/sites/default/files/styles/280_x_auto/public/2024-06/mi_1863_06_13_loge_institut.jpg?itok=wJoVVEJ-)
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publication date : 12/08/25
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