Page 92 - Off The Tourist Trail - 1000 Unexpected Travel Alternatives (Part 2 of 2)

260 6 MORE GREAT MUSEUMS IN ROME

ART AND CULTURE

Pope Innocent X (c. 1650) by Velázquez at the Galleria Doria Pamphilj
Galleria Doria
Rape of Persephone (1621–2) by Bernini at the Galleria Borghese
Palazzo Barberini, part of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica
Galleria Pamphilj

Borghese Galleria
Alongside the Windsors and the Gettys, the Doria Nazionale
Pamphilj family has the best private art collection
Cardinal Scipione Borghese had money, taste, and, in the world, boasting works by most of the great d’Arte Antica
most importantly, a pope for an uncle. He started names of the Renaissance. This Roman dynasty
collecting paintings and sculptures for his villa in has been marrying, inheriting, and buying its way
the (then) outskirts of Rome in 1605, and over the toward the collection since the 16th century. Split between two exquisite palazzi, the Galleria
course of a lifetime amassed a truly awe-inspiring On entering the museum, you’re immediately Nazionale d’Arte Antica has hundreds of enthralling
collection. His smartest move was hiring the transported far from the traffic on the Via del Corso. paintings and a few genuine masterpieces, yet it
young artist Bernini to work for him. His second The Poussin Room, filled with sensual landscapes, barely sees a soul from one day to the next. You
smartest was to kick off his collection by drops you into an entirely new world. And it gets might easily have a room full of Sienese Masters
confiscating a hundred wonderful canvases from better, with a ballroom the producer of a costume or a couple of Filippo Lippis to yourself. On the
Caravaggio’s teacher, the painter Cavalier d’Arpino. drama could only fantasize about, a chapel with a flip side, you might equally get Caravaggio’s
The Galleria Borghese has only 20 rooms, but family mummy and then, at the very heart of the spine-tinglingly ruthless decapitation of
there isn’t a single one that won’t make you gasp palace, the four gilded galleries that run round Holofernes – not a painting to see on your own.
in delighted recognition. You have to book a the light-filled courtyard. Velázquez’s portrait of Perhaps even more rewarding than the
2-hour slot in advance, but this makes the whole Pope Innocent X (a member of the family) is the paintings are the buildings themselves. Palazzo
experience much more civilized. On the first floor star, the light splashing on his crimson sash against Barberini had Bernini, Borromini and Maderno as
there’s sculpture, including some of Bernini’s finest the lightless depths of the damask drapery its designers. Its epic centerpiece is the swirling,
statues. When you see the fingers of the god Pluto behind. Then there’s Titian’s Salomé, a girl far too angel-filled fresco by Pietro da Cortona in the main
pressed into the impossibly soft marble flesh of virtuously beautiful to be carrying the head of St. salon. It’s as masterfully outrageous as anything the
Proserpina, you’ll understand what a sharp eye for John the Baptist on a plate. Other treasures of the notoriously over-the-top Baroque era could muster.
talent the cardinal had. On the second floor the collection include works by Raphael, Filippo Lippi, On the other side of the Tiber, Palazzo Corsini must
collection of paintings is so rich, so full of chocolate Caravaggio, Titian, and a bewitching landscape be the most shamefully ignored beauty in Rome.
and cream, that an aesthetic tummy ache may with dancing figures by Claude Lorrain. The palace, standing next to the old Botanical
force you to leave before your 2 hours are up: Titian, If you can, visit the Galleria Doria Pamphilj Gardens, has works by Rubens, Van Dyck, and
Raphael, and six (count them, six!) Caravaggios. at dusk, just as the lights come on, and marvel Giordano, all waiting patiently while the ghosts of
as the light dances between the ornate glass the Corsini family drift through the quiet corridors.
chandeliers and the gilded mirrors.
Practical Information
Address Piazzale Scipione Borghese 5; tel. +39 06 32810; Practical Information
www.galleriaborghese.it Practical Information Address Palazzo Barberini, Via delle Quattro Fontane 13. Palazzo Corsini,
Getting There The Galleria Borghese is on the eastern side of the Parco Villa Address Via Corso 305; tel. +39 06 679 7323; Via della Lungara 10; tel. +39 06 4201 0066; www.galleriaborghese.it
Borghese. The Spagna metro stop, on Line A, is at the other end of the www.doriapamphilj.it/ukhome.asp Getting There Palazzo Barberini is a few steps from the Barberini metro
park, 1 mile (1.5 km) away. Getting There The nearest metro stop is Colosseo, on Line B. The Via Corso stop, on Line B, while Palazzo Corsini is in northern Trastevere, a good walk
Opening Times 8:30am–7:30pm Tue–Sun. Visits must be booked in is used by dozens of bus routes. from the San Pietro metro stop. It’s easier to take the 23, 28 or 65 bus there.
advance. You will be given a 2-hour slot. Opening Times 10am–5pm daily. Opening Times 8:30am–7:30pm Tue–Sun.

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