The Society of Dilettanti was founded in 1732 as a dining club for gentlemen who had travelled to Italy, its purpose apparently to perpetuate the youthful high spirits as well as the cultural pursuits associated with the Grand Tour. Patrons of Italian opera, they subsequently turned their attention to the sponsorship of archaeology, but they wished also to encourage living artists and proposed during the 1740's and 1750's to found an Academy of Art in London. The idea of a group portrait seems to have been first suggested at the dinner of 12 January 1777, which we know that Reynolds attended.