Madrid Travel Guide: Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando

This undervisited museum, Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, is in fact one of Madrid's most important and oldest permanent artistic institutions (it was founded in 1794). The eclectic collection of the Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando is partly made up of works of varying quality donated by aspiring members in order to gain admission to the academy.

The Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando's greatest possessions, though, are its 13 works by Goya, an important figure in the early years of the Academia. They include two major self-portraits; a portrait of his friend, the playwright Moratín; a portrait of Charles IV's hated minister Godoy; and the Burial of the Sardine, a carnival scene that foreshadows his later, darker works. Another of the Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando's most prized possessions is the Italian mannerist Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Spring, a playful, surrealistic portrait of a man made up entirely of flowers. It was one of a series on the four seasons painted for Ferdinand I of Austria in 1563: Summer and Winter are still in Vienna, but the whereabouts of Autumn is unknown.

In the Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, there are also important portraits by Velázquez and Rubens, and several paintings by Zurbarán. Among the later works of the Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, the best known are some Picasso engravings and a Juan Gris; the most surprising are the colourful fantasies of Múñoz Degrain and the De Chirico-esque work of Julio Romero de Torres. While in the Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, look out too for Leandro Bassano's superb La Riva degli Schiavoni.

The Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando also has a valuable collection of plans and drawings, including those of Prado architect Juan de Villanueva, and rare books. In the same building of the Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando is the Calcografía Nacional, a similarly priceless collection and archive of engraving and fine printing, which has many of the original plates for the great etching series of Goya.

Address C/Alcalá 13
Transport Metro Sevilla or Sol .
Telephone 91 524 08 83
Open 10am-2pm Mon, Sat, Sun; 9am-7pm Tue-Fri. Calcografía Nacional 9-2.30pm Mon-Fri. Temporary exhibitions 10am-2pm, 5-8pm Tue-Fri; 10am-2pm Sat, Sun.
Admission €3; €1.50 students; free under-18s, over-65s.
Free to all Wed. Calcografía Nacional free.