When Count Felice Gazola or Gazzola, Lieutenant General of the Spanish Army, Commander and Coronel of artillery, and Commendatore of the Order of Calatrava died in 1780, his will left money to native Piacenza to: maintain and dress six youths working in decorative or figure painting, wood or marble sculpture, architecture, surveying, art of jewel making... and if Piacenza lacked persons able to teach painting, sculpture, and architecture, the youths would be sent to either Parma or Bologna. He named as administrators of this institute the heads of eight prominent local families: another Conti Gazola, Grassi da Fareneto, Conti Leoni, Caraccioli, Rocca, Cassola, Portapudia, and the Counselor Antonio Francesco Maggi. These individuals decided to form a more stable institute in 1781, housed in Felice Gazzola's palace and consisting of a school of figure painting and a school of architecture, ornamentation, and perspective. A school of Del nudo was later added, expanded in 1834 with schools of practical arithmetics and Geometry descriptive and linear design. They allowed for students to study in Rome. One of the first professors was Carlo Maria Viganoni, then Giuseppe Gherardi, then Lorenzo Toncini. Viganoni donated his collection of stucco models of classic statuary. Among its early pupils were Innocente Micliavacca, Gaetano Monti ; Davide Testi ; Valerio Rivetti, Lorenzo Toncini, Quaglia an manuscript illuminator, and Aspetti, a painter. The Institute is still localized in the medieval Palace once belonging to the Fontana family, then later to the monastery of San Sisto, until the Count Giovanni Angelo Gazzola obtained it in 1699. The palace held the Museo Civico of Piacenza from 1903 to 1975, when the museum was moved to the Palazzo Farnese of Piacenza. In 1838 the Institute was endowed with 42 works owned by the Doctor Cesare Martelli, that formed the core of its collections. The collection of armory is now in the Palazzo Farnese. Many works of art are still displayed at the Institute Pinacoteca including:
