Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica – Palazzo Barberini

A must for anyone into Renaissance and baroque art, this sumptuous gallery is housed in one of Rome’s most spectacular palazzi. Commissioned by the Barberini pope Urban VIII in 1623, it was worked on by a who’s-who of 17th-century architects, including Carlo Maderno, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini – check out their rival staircases within the building. Pietro da Cortona painted the breathtaking fresco Trionfo della Divina Provvidenza (Triumph of Divine Providence), in the main 1st-floor salon, between 1633 and 1639. The gallery, on the 1st floor, contains a superb selection of 16th- to 17th-century works, including paintings by Raphael, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Bernini and Holbein. Highlights include Raphael’s lovely La Fornarina (The Baker ’ s Girl), a portrait of his mistress who worked in a Trastevere bakery; the luminous Annunziazione (Annunciation) by Filippo Lippi; Guido Reni’s Ritratto di Beatrice Cenci (Portrait of Beatrice Cenci); 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 gruesome Giuditta taglia la testa a Oloferne (Judith Beheading Holofernes; c 1597–1600), and Narcisso (Narcissus; c 1571–1610).