In 1849 Alessandro Ciccarelli Manzoni, napolitan painter with a working brilliant international career, performed the Discurso de inauguración de la Academia de Pintura in Santiago de Chile. Thereby was established the plan of the Government to offer to the country an institution that could watch over the education of young artists involved in history painting. We will analyze the Discurso and we will reflect about the establishment of a painting education system that was set since that moment and of which Ciccarelli was pioneer. We think that the resulting adhesion of the institution to the canon of the classicism of 19th century, even though it seemed anachronistic in relation to the romantic trend that took place in America and Europe, turned out to be in line with the idiosyncrasy of Chile, that grew until the moment when the institutions regulated the education in Arts.