There is no news of the Arcadia picture gallery before 1770 and this is probably due to the Accademia’s wandering from its first seat on the Bosco Parrasio, in October 1690, next to San Pietro in Montorio, and then to the better known one on the slopes of the Janiculum Hill, to various Roman aristocratic palaces until its seat in the Collegio Mattei, in Via del Lavatore, near San Nicola in Arcione in 1766.

Under the stewardship of Abbot Giuseppe Brogi (1766-1772) and later Gioacchino Pizzi (1772-1790), the idea arose to collect ‘in the Tank’ near San Carlo al Corso, the portraits of the most illustrious general custodians and archadians, requesting portraits of deceased archadians from friends or heirs or soliciting archadians as painters to work for the Academy and to leave a memory of their valour with self-portraits or portraits of other members. Also during the custody of Godard (1790-1824) and later Barola, the picture gallery was enriched with more paintings; some canvases were restored and a cartouche was placed under each portrait indicating the name of the pastor and the dates of birth and death.

Of the 191 paintings that made up the Academy’s picture gallery, many were dispersed as a result of the political crises that swept through Rome in the first half of the 19th century; more than 100 went into permanent storage at the Museum of Rome in Palazzo Braschi, and just 18 found a place in the 18th-century vestibule of the Angelica Library where the Library of the Academy of Arcadia was housed in 1940, as soon as restoration work was completed.

Portraits of particular interest include Cardinal Pamphili Bentivoglio and Cardinal Pacca, Metastasio, the poetess Teresa Bandettini by Labruzzi, the scientist Lorenzo Magalotti and the poetess Diodata Saluzzo Roero.