The Royal Academy of San Fernando and the construction of a field of Fine Arts in Spain in the Eighteenth century. Political, social and artistic panoramic

Abstract

This paper aims to contextually update the research carried out so far on Madrid's Academy of Fine Arts. Using the different knowledge in the cultural, social, economic and political sectors, the paper endeavours to show how and to what extent the creation of a Fine Arts field has been part of the program of enlightened despotism. I will particularly focus on:

• The absolute dependence on the monarch's authority,
• women's role within the Academy,
• the project aimed at generalising the teaching of drawing, and the pedagogy imposed by the members of the Academy,
• the Academy's role as an artistic authority as well as it efforts to improve the social recognition of artists and to support the arts.