Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando is a cultural institution and museum located on the Calle de Alcala in Madrid, Spain. Functioning as both a public law corporation and a fine art gallery, it is integrated into the Instituto de Espana alongside other Spanish royal academies. Established in the mid-eighteenth century, the institution plays a dual role as an educational center for artists and a major museum housing an extensive collection of paintings, sculptures, and drawings from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. It is widely regarded as the second most important art gallery in the country due to the abundance and significance of its holdings.

The academy was initially conceived in 1744 when King Philip V granted it formal statutes, fulfilling a long-standing demand of the Spanish artistic community. However, its definitive constitution occurred on April 12, 1752, under the patronage of King Ferdinand VI, who gave it the original name Royal Academy of the Three Noble Arts of San Fernando, referring to painting, sculpture, and architecture. The Italian painter Corrado Giaquinto, called to the Spanish court in 1753, became its first director. The institution received its current name in 1873 when a music section was added. The curriculum expanded further in 1987 to include photography, video art, film, and television, integrating these into the sculpture section, which was renamed the section of sculpture and image arts. The academy was bombed on November 16, 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, when forces allied with Francisco Franco attacked Madrid. It was incorporated into the university in 1966, and by 2015, it had 51 titular academicians, with the King of Spain serving as its protector.

The museum's collection spans over four centuries, primarily featuring painting and sculpture from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, alongside architectural records and musical scores. It is particularly strong in Spanish masters but also holds significant works by Italian and Flemish artists. The holdings were assembled through various sources, including donations from the Spanish royal family, goods seized from religious orders during the ecclesiastical confiscations of the nineteenth century, and private bequests from collectors such as Manuel de Godoy in 1816, Manuel Fernandez Varela in 1833, and Don Manuel Garcia de la Prada in 1839. Additionally, the academy houses the national chalcography, which preserves important engraved plates, notably those by Francisco Goya, and continues to produce collector prints from them. The institution also maintains a scientific library with over 60,000 volumes, incunabula, manuscripts, designs, and music scores.

The gallery displays works across 59 exhibition rooms. Spanish masters are well represented by El Greco, Luis de Morales, Francisco de Zurbaran, Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Alonso Cano, Diego Velazquez, and Francisco Goya, whose works include The Burial of the Sardine, Tribunal of the Inquisition, and The Madhouse. Other notable Spanish pieces include Jose de Ribera's Saint Jerome Writing in the Desert and Vicente Lopez y Portana's portrait of King Francis of Bourbon. Foreign masterpieces include Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Spring, the only work by the artist in Spain, Giovanni Bellini, Antonio da Correggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Anton Raphael Mengs. The collection also holds a rare 1796 portrait of George Washington by Giuseppe Pirovani, and modern works by Joaquin Sorolla, Juan Gris, and Pablo Picasso.

Since 1773, the academy has been headquartered in the Goyeneche Palace at number 13 Calle de Alcala. The palace was originally built around 1725 to the baroque designs of architect Jose Benito de Churriguera for the Goyeneche family. King Charles III purchased the building for the academy and commissioned Diego de Villanueva to convert it for academic use. Villanueva removed the original baroque elements, adapting the structure to the neoclassical tastes of the period. A later remodeling of the building took place between 1973 and 1985 under the direction of architect Fernando Chueca Goitia. Beyond the main palace, the institution occupies two other properties in Madrid, and its facilities include an assembly hall, various educational rooms, and a valuable archive.

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando is located at 13 Calle de Alcala in the center of Madrid. It operates as a publicly accessible museum and gallery, and its collections can be explored through a virtual tour provided by Google Arts and Culture, as well as an official mobile application for Android and iOS. The institution functions not only as a museum but also as an active academy of arts, with a teaching institute attached. It remains a constituent corporation of the Instituto de Espana and operates under the patronage of the Spanish monarchy.