Artists / Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando

The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando), located on the Calle de Alcal? in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery.

The academy was established by royal decree in 1744. About twenty years later, the enlightened monarch, Charles III purchased a palace in Madrid as the academy’s new home. The building had been designed by Jos? Benito de Churriguera for the Goyeneche family. The king commissioned Diego de Villanueva to convert the building for academic use, employing a neoclassical style in place of Churriguera’s baroque design.

Doubling as a museum and gallery, today it houses a fine art collection of paintings from the 15th to 20th century: Giovanni Bellini, Correggio, Rubens, Zurbar?n, Murillo, Goya, Juan Gris, Pablo Serrano, among others. The academy is also the headquarters of the Madrid Academy of Art.
Francisco Goya was once one of the academy’s directors, and, its alumni include Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dal?, Antonio L?pez Garc?a, Juan Luna, and Fernando Botero.