This gallery was decorated in 1665 and takes its name from Cardinal Legate Pietro Vidoni who commissioned the work. The fresco on the ceiling was executed by Domenico Santi (Bologna, 1621 - 1694), known as Il Mengazzino, who was responsible for the quadratura (illusionistic ceiling decoration) and by Giovanni Battista Caccioli (Bologna, 1623 - 1675), who painted the figures.
This room was one of the reception rooms in the Legate’s quarters, dedicated, according to an epigraph now lost, to the ‘honesto dembulantium otio’, literally “the honest rest for walkers” - a place to take a restful walk. A rest was indeed granted, thanks to the splendid decorations and the intense light provided by the many windows that today open onto the modern via dell’Indipendenza.
The gallery was originally an open 16th-century loggia, which most likely explains the large number of windows. Similar examples can be found in the Vatican Palace in Rome. The rich Baroque decoration creates illusionary architectural spaces where figures move about, lightening the rather low and oppressive barrel vault. During the French occupation (1796), the Apostolic palace, official residence of the Papal Legate of the City, was requisitioned and became the seat of the Direttorio della Repubblica Cispadana (the new governing body).
This gallery then became the point of connection between the apartments of the magistrates that ruled the new Republic. It was extensively refashioned and several Neoclassical elements were added. Niches were created to host the large stucco statues by Giacomo De Maria and Giacomo Rossi (Minerva, Juno, The Genius, Vigilance and Victory). Two shelves with fasces (a bundle of rods with a projecting axe, symbol of a magistrate's power), helmets and laurel wreaths were built on the cornice along the shorter walls. The two overdoor bas-reliefs, flanking The Genius, representing episodes of Roman history, are also by De Maria. They were part of the same ‘Jacobin’ redecoration project, whose civil themes were in accordance with the room's new function.
The exhibition installation of this room has basically been unchanged since 1936. The twenty-one paintings by Donato Creti form the largest collection of works by the artist held by a single institution. The four Stories of Achilles, the four Virtues, the two Stories of Mercury as well as the eight monochrome overdoor paintings, come from the Marcantonio Collina Sbaraglia bequest to the Senate of Bologna (1744) and are the oldest nucleus of the present museum.
