Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome, an expression dating from the nineteenth century, commonly refers to the collaboration of the Royal Academies of the Ancien Régime and the pension in Rome and then, after the French Revolution and the Empire, Study of the Academy of Fine Arts allowing young artists to train in Italy.
The expression, sometimes declared as a "Grand Prize of Rome", is in reality unsuitable for the Ancien Régime, where success in the competitions of the Academies and award of the pension for Rome are not automatically linked, the pension and the stay in Rome Being determined solely by royal favor and not by any success in competitions.
In the case of competitions, it is necessary to speak of "grand prize of architecture", "painting", "sculpture" and, with regard to the stay in Rome, "royal pension", the artists designating themselves As "boarders".
The expression is correct only when success in architectural, painting and sculpture competitions, as well as other prizes created in the nineteenth century, such as the music prize, leads to the automatic Pension and the benefit of the Roman residence, that is to say from the creation of the Institute of France and the Academy of Fine Arts, during the Revolution and the Empire.
