Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica

Lonely Planet review

A must for anyone into Renaissance and baroque art, this glorious gallery is housed in one of Rome's most spectacular palazzi . Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII to celebrate the Barberini family's rise to papal power in 1623, Palazzo Barberini was worked on by a who's who of 17th-century architects: designed by Carlo Maderno and then his nephew Borromini after his death, with a staircase by Bernini and a fresco by Pietro da Cortona.

Today the palace houses part of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica's collection of 13th- to 17th-century works, including paintings by Raphael, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Bernini, Filippo Lippi and Holbein.

Highlights on the 1st floor include Raphael's lovely La Fornarina (The Baker ' s Girl); the luminous Annunziazione (Annunciation) by Filippo Lippi; Guido Reni's Ritratto di Beatrice Cenci (Portrait of Beatrice Cenci; see the boxed text, ); and Hans Holbein's famous Ritratto di Enrico VIII (Portrait of Henry VIII),painted on the day Henry married Anne of Cleves. Caravaggio fans will delight in his Giuditta taglia la testa a Oloferne (Judith Beheading Holophernes, c 1597-1600), a gruesome masterpiece of theatrical lighting, and Narcisso (Narcissus, c 1571-1610).

On the 2nd floor are the 18th-century apartments of Princess Cornelia Costanza Barberini.