Portraits of Academicians17th-19th centuriesAThe Accademia di San Luca; (the 鈥楢cademy of Saint Luke') was founded in 1577 as an association of artists in Rome with the purpose of elevating the work of 鈥榓rtists'; which included painters; sculptors and architects; above that of mere craftsmen. The Academy is still active; the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca is its modern descendant. From the very beginning; the statutes of the Academy directed that each candidate-academician was to donate a work of his art in perpetual memory and; later; a portrait. Thus the Academy; in its current premises in the 16th-century Palazzo Carpegna; located in the Piazza dell'Accademia di San Luca; has accumulated a unique collection of paintings and sculptures; including about 500 portraits; as well as an outstanding collection of drawings. The Academy was named after Saint Luke the evangelist who; legend has it; made a portrait of the Virgin Mary; and thus became the patron saint of painters' guilds.2018