Between 1664 and 1810 the Great Painters’ Hall of the Guild of Saint Luke, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the rhetoricians, had a unique place in artistic life in Antwerp. The hall was decorated with paintings and portrait busts by Antwerp artists, both famous and relatively unknown, and served many purposes: as a reception room, museum, theatre, among others. This article wishes to recreate the original appearance of the hall and reconstruct its art collection. Furthermore, the author argues that the art collection was not haphazardly assembled, but that both the artworks that were displayed in the hall and the plays that were performed there worked together to convey a number of messages relevant to the artists, to the city and to those in power.