As I’ve been planning my courses I got fairly frustrated with how art classes are set up as difficult to continue. Intro classes in x amount of weeks, structured similarly to humanities courses in diversity. Things like Intro to Painting, Painting 1 and 2. It feels very broken down and artificial, and while understandable, also very different from studying under someone. What led to the transition from apprenticeships to art schools or the presence of art in modern schooling or universities?
Sorry for the delay! This question speaks to an exam I’m currently preparing for and I’ve been a little behind in my research recently. A lot of the following information comes from Catherine Whistler’s extremely well researched book, ‘Venice and Drawing’. So this answer will focus on Venice during the Renaissance - it’s a good starting point considering how cosmopolitan the city was and how strictly connected it was to other cultural centres both inside and outside Italy.
The structure for the “bottega” or workshop begins in the medieval period, as artistic production was centred around the scriptorium. By the 1400s and 1500s, the bottega system becomes the norm for organising artistic production. The bottega in Venice was often, but not always, a family business and often hosted students or other collaborating artists. In the bottega, the master would work with students, helpers (allievi) and sometimes other artists to complete commissioned artworks. The bottega was also the place where students would receive their art education - often following the style of the master, but also learning the basics of drawing (disegno).
Disegno in Renaissance Italy was considered absolutely fundamental to any artistic practice. Vasari dubbed it the “father of the arts” and there was a strict academic praxis surrounding its use in artistic production that was born in the tosco-romano area and quickly diffused throughout the Italian cultural centres, Germany, the Netherlands and France. An artist would produce numerous drawings before even beginning to paint, from the initial “brainstorm” drawings to a completed model that would be presented to the commissioning body for approval - often simulating the final pictorial effects, coloured with watercolours to simulate the coloristic effect of the final painting and using white chalk to indicate chiaroscuro. Numerous studies of particular details would follow - heads, hands and feet would receive special attention, as would landscape details, backgrounds, important objects featured in the final painting, details of clothing and drapery, etc….