His father was the sculptor Juan de Villanueva and his brother,
Diego de Villanueva was not only his protector, but also his teacher. He entered the
Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando as a pupil when he was eleven years old. In 1758, he travelled to
Rome to become a grant holder of the Academy to complete his studies. In 1765, he returned to Spain. A year later, he travelled through
Córdoba and
Granada, where he, together with
José de Hermosilla, went to draw the "Arab antiquities." The drawings from these travels were published in 1804. He settled in Madrid, where he was appointed Academic of the Academy of San Fernando. In 1777,
Charles III appointed him Architect of the Prince and the Infants. From then to the end of his life he would work almost exclusively for the Royal House. In 1781, he was appointed Architect of the Royal Monastery of
El Escorial, and Charles IV appointed him Major Architect. He was going to construct several pavilions for the royal disposal: in 1771, he built the
Casa de Infantes at the
Royal Palace of Aranjuez; in 1772, the
Casita del Príncipe, at
El Pardo; in 1773, the
Casita del Infante (with a Palladian scheme and a notable plasticity in the treatment for the main portal) and the
Casita del Príncipe, both in El Escorial, where he also constructed the
Casas de Oficios, a group of houses, according to the sober
Herrerian style of the Monastery. Nevertheless, his undisputed masterpiece is the
Prado Museum, projected in 1785 and 1787. It was constructed as a Museum of Natural History, a School of Natural History, and an auditorium for conferences and lectures. It was transformed into the Museum of Art in 1814, and today it is also known as
Edificio Villanueva. He was a prolific architect and he displayed the majority of his work in Madrid: buildings like the
Academy of History, the
Oratory of the Caballero de Gracia, the
Royal Observatory of Madrid are remarkable. With his interventions in the
Plaza Mayor, both after the fire of 1790 and in the Major House among others, he collaborated in the renovation of the image of the city. He was buried in
St Sebastian's Church, Madrid. With his personal style and with his strong local influences, he was the architect who best brought the theorical basis of European Neoclassicism to Spain. ==Main works==