The academic des Peinture et Sculpture was established in Paris in 1648 as an alternative to the medieval guild system, which it eventually replaced. It served two purposes, to educate young painters and sculptors and to promote the highest standards in the practice of the fine arts. The Academy itself was a body of distinguished, mature artists who decided what was good in art. They could enforce their ideas because the Academy controlled nearly all the rewards given to artists: artists' apprenticeships and training, exhibition space (and thus the possibility of selling a work), prizes for the best pieces, and eventually, election to an academic chair. There were about 40 chairs in the Academy, and election to a chair was the culmination of a successful artist's career. Young artists, than, were highly dependent on the academicians.