A HISTORY OF THE STATUE GALLERY AT THE TRUSTEES' ACADEMY IN EDINBURGH: The acquisition of the Albacini casts in 1838

Abstract

In 1838 the Board of Trustees for Manufactures in Scotland purchased 255 plaster casts of Graeco-Roman portrait busts from Filippo Albacini of Rome, the son of the sculptor-restorer Carlo Albacini. These casts joined a collection of figure casts acquired from 1798 for the Trustees' Academy or drawing school in Edinburgh. During the 1820s and 1830s the cast collections developed into a major teaching resource with the aid of the sculptor Thomas Campbell and the painter and dealer Andrew Wilson. By mid century public access to the Trustees' ‘Statue Gallery’ was regularized. The affiliation of the Trustees' Academy to the Department of Science and Art in 1858 contributed to the decline of the Statue Gallery. On its closure in 1904 the figure casts were transferred to Edinburgh College of Art. Some of the surviving Albacini casts are now displayed in the National Gallery of Scotland.

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