José Casado del Alisal urged the administrator of the Pii Places to seek a place to found the Academy. San Giacomo degli Spagnoli was proposed in Piazza Navona, a project that would later be wrecked. Faced with the lack of a permanent home, it was decided to house the first group of pensionados, who settled in February 1874, in the Palazzo di Spagna and subsequently in some rented premises in Via della Croce. Given the situation, Count Coello of Portugal, Head of the Spanish Legation in Rome, carried out the negotiations which allowed the Academy to have a permanent seat in the Convent of San Pietro in Montorio, according to the transaction document of August 21, 1876. This it was possible thanks to the Italian law of 19 June 1873 which extended to the city and province of Rome the laws to suppress the religious corporations in force in the Kingdom. Work began in 1879 and the Academy was officially inaugurated on January 23, 1881.
The years following the foundation of the Academy in 1873 can be considered as a true golden age. First of all, due to the importance of the Spanish colony of artists in the city, including Joaquín Sorolla, pensionado of the provincial government of Valencia in Rome from 1885 to 1889, who resided for some periods in the Academy and had relations with his pensionados; secondly thanks to the role of directors such as Vicente Palmaroli, José Villegas, Mariano Benlliure or José Benlliure, artists totally integrated in the Italian cultural fabric that facilitated the inclusion of Spanish pensionados in the artistic and social environment of the city, as evidenced by the presence of the King of Italy and Queen Mother Margherita at the final exhibition of the pensionados of the years 1900-1904 celebrated in January 1904.
Royal Academy of Spain
Address: Piazza di S. Pietro in Montorio, 3, 00153
Phone: 06 581 2806
Site:
http://www.accademiaspagna.orgLocation inserted by
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