The Prix de Rome was a Scholarship for art students. It was created in 1663 in France under the reign of Louis XIV . It was an annual burse for promising artists (painters, sculptors, and architects) who proved their talents by completing a very difficult elimination contest. The prize, organised by the Royal Academy Of Painting And Sculpture , was open to their students. The award winner would win a stay at the Mancini Palace in Rome at the expense of the King of France. The stay could be extended if the director of the institution deemed it useful.
Expanded after 140 years into 5 categories, the contest started in 1663 as three categories - Painting , Sculpting , and Architecture ; in 1803 , Music was added; in 1804 , Engraving was added. The winner of the "First Grand Prize" would be sent to The Academy of France in Rome founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1666 . There were also "Second Prizes" that allowed participants go to the same academy, albeit for a shorter period of time.
The Prix de Rome was suppressed in 1968 by André Malraux . Since then, there have been a number of contests on file, and the Academies, together with The Institute Of France , were merged by the State and the Minister of Culture. Selected lodgers now have an opportunity for improvement during an 18-month (sometimes 2-year) stay at The Academy Of France In Rome (presently accommodated by the Villa Médicis ).
1813 - François-Edouard Picot The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature, Pierre Bourdieu, p. 215, ISBN 0231082878, 1993, Columbia University Press
1868 - Édouard-Théophile Blanchard The Legacy of Homer: Four Centuries of Art from the Ecole Nationale Superieure Des Beaux-arts, Paris, 2005, Yale University Press, ISBN 0300109180
