The Gallery of Paintings of the Academy

This space is today the hall of Professors, where exams and meetings with students are held. Originally was probably the apse of the Church of Sant'Ignazio, as can be seen from the presence of the columns that suggest the ideal continuation of the Aula Magna. The Sala Clementina owes its name to the presence of the bust of Pope Clement XI. The walls of this room exhibit most of the paintings in the collection with a wide selection of portraits from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, representing professors of the Academy or high-ranking personalities. Some of these artworks were donated by the artists awarded the title of Accademici d'Onore or by well-known personalities of the city. All these paintings is a visible witness of the italian and foreign personalities who took part in the history of the Academy.

This room, adjacent to the Sala Clementina, is a place for institutional meetings. The name refers to the monument realized by Antonio Venturoli and Giacomo De Maria dedicated to the Baltic Prince Pietro Biron, Duke of Curlandia and Semigallia, nominated as Accademico d'Onore during his tour in Italy. In 1787 the duke decides to establish the Curlandese Prize, awarded until the middle of the last century, giving a thousand gold ducats. The award was added to the other existing ones: the Marsili - Aldrovandi and the Fiori. The annual prizes, awarded at the end of the year, were the most stimulating aspect of the academic life, especially for young students. This room collects twenty-four small monochrome canvases, winner of the Marsili Award for the section School of Figure between 1728 and 1803. These small paintings, all monochromatic and made with high pictorial quality, represent themes chosen by the commission, either mythological or historical. In the room there are also three watercolor drawings representing perspectives and scenographies, an example of the very high teaching of the School of Architecture.

The wing of the Academy, where today the Administrative Offices are located, preserves some others paintings placed in the Directorate and the Presidency. Among these the two particular artwork Teschi accatastati and the unpublished little table Ritratto di Anna Beatrice d'Asburgo-Este dopo la morte. The wide corridor houses also the entire heritage of books from the historical library, rich in precious volumes including: the collection of prints of the roman antiquities by Giovan Battista Piranesi, the volumes of the Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot and Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alambert and the main italian and foreign treatises of ornato, perspective and architecture - from Andrea Palladio to Vignola, Ottavio Scamozzi, Andrea Pozzo or Ferdinando Bibiena.