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Palazzo Corsini
Via della Lungara 10 Tues-Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 9am-2pm, Sun 9am-1pm; L8000. Cutting north through the backstreets of Trastevere towards the Tiber, the Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Corsini is an unexpected cultural attraction on this side of the river. Built originally for Cardinal Riario in the fifteenth century, the palace was totally renovated in 1732-36 by Ferdinando Fuga for the cardinal and art collector Neri Maria Corsini, who gathered most of the paintings on display. It’s rather a highbrow collection, perhaps of more interest to the art historian rather than the layperson, but among its highlights are works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Guido Reni and Caravaggio.
Among a host of works from the late 1400s and primeval 1500s, there is a particularly gruesome St George and the Dragon by Francesco Raibolini, and, in the next room, a St John the Baptist by Caravaggio and Madonna and Child by Gentileschi, along with a charming double portrait of Clement XII with his nephew, the gallery’s founder Neri Corsini. Beyond here, look out for a depiction of the Pantheon by Charles Clérisseau, when there was a market held in the piazza outside - though it’s a rather fanciful interpretation, squeezing the Pyramid of Cestius and Arch of Janus into the background. You can also visit the chambers of Queen Christina, who renounced Protestantism, and, with it, the Swedish throne in 1655, and brought her library and fortune to Rome, to the delight of the Chigi pope, Alexander VII. She died here, in the palace, in 1689, and she is one of only three women to be buried in St Peter’s. Her bedroom is decorated with frescoes by an unknown artist - grotesques with scenes of the miracles of Moses as well as the Riario coats of arms.
Later rooms are chock-full of paintings from the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries, but apart from a famous portrayal of Salome With the Head of St John the Baptist by Guido Reni, and Prometheus Chained by Salvatore Rosa - the latter one of the most vivid and detailed expositions of human internal anatomy you’ll see - the main thing to look for is the curious Corsini Throne, thought to be a Roman copy of an Etruscan throne of the second or first century. Carved out of marble, its back is carved with warriors in armour and helmets, below which is a boar hunt, with wild boars the size of horses pursued by hunters. The base is decorated with scenes of a sacrifice, notably the minotaur devouring a human being - only discernible by the kicking legs that deform from the feasting beast.
