 Although details of his time there are sketchy, his skills and reputation increased so much so that by 1648 he had become a member of the prestigious Accademia di San Luca (where he is recorded as ""Michele Rita, pittore inglese"").At that time, the Accademia included numbers of established Italian painters as well as illustrious foreigners including the French Nicolas Poussin and Spaniard Diego Velázquez.On 10 February that year he was elected to the "Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon", a charitable body promoting the Roman Catholic faith through art, which hosted an annual exhibition in the Pantheon.