Velázquez's Innocent X
One of the greatest portraits ever made, in its own room beside Bernini's bust of the same man.
antmoose — CC BY 2.0 · Livioandronico2013 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Livioandronico2013 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Livioandronico2013 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Usually not — you can buy at the door almost any day, which is one of its great advantages over the Borghese and the Vatican.
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The largest private art collection in Rome still held by the family that formed it — and the family still lives in the palace. You step off the noisy Via del Corso into complete silence, and rooms hung floor to ceiling in the original seventeenth-century manner rather than in modern museum order. The jewel is Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650) — reckoned among the greatest portraits ever painted, and of which the pope himself said it was "too true." It hangs in its own small room beside Bernini's marble bust of the same man: a rare direct comparison of a great painter and a great sculptor working from one sitter. There is also a Caravaggio, a deep holding of Italian and Flemish painting, and a gilded hall of mirrors in the Versailles manner. The audio guide is free with the ticket and is narrated by a member of the family about his own house and ancestors — one of the most charming museum experiences in Europe.
One of the greatest portraits ever made, in its own room beside Bernini's bust of the same man.
An audio guide told by the owner about his ancestors and their pictures — personal, funny and not remotely institutional.
A gilded Versailles-style gallery under painted ceilings — the palace's loveliest and most photographed room.
Via del Corso 305, Rome
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