Villa Torlonia in Rome is a historic estate where you can combine a walk through the park with visits to museums and Mussolini’s wartime shelters. The Casina delle Civette is a highlight for stained glass, while Casino Nobile offers grand reception rooms and twentieth-century art.
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Caravaggio painted Madonna of the Palafrenieri for an altar in St. Peter’s Basilica. It left the church soon after it arrived, and the reasons for its removal are still debated.
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Behind the walls near the Spanish Steps, Villa Medici in Rome opens onto formal gardens and a facade studded with ancient reliefs. You’ll need a guided tour to visit the historic grounds and the cardinal’s painted rooms, with views across the city along the way.
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A smiling woman raises a sun, but the figure meant to uncover her is missing. In Truth Unveiled by Time, Gian Lorenzo Bernini carved Truth and planned for Time to draw back her covering. He never made that second figure. Bernini made the marble for himself during a difficult period in his career. Today, you […]
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At Villa Giulia in Rome, you can spend a morning with Etruscan masterpieces, then wander through the courtyards and gardens of a Renaissance villa. Look out for the smiling couple on the Sarcophagus of the Spouses, and pause at the loggia for a view down into the nymphaeum, a sunken fountain court.
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Porta Pia closes the view along Via XX Settembre with a broken pediment and bold papal emblems. Its city-facing facade follows Michelangelo’s design; on the Via Nomentana side, statues and a grand 19th-century arch give the gate a very different appearance.
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An old man sits high on his son’s shoulder, while a small boy follows behind their legs. In Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius, Gian Lorenzo Bernini brings three generations together in a single marble group: Aeneas carries his father, Anchises, out of burning Troy, with his son Ascanius close behind. Made for Cardinal Scipione Borghese and […]
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A thin arm stretches across the books toward a skull on the far side of the table. In Saint Jerome by Caravaggio, the elderly saint keeps his eyes lowered to an open volume while his hand holds a quill. His red cloak leaves part of his chest bare, and a faint halo curves above his […]
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A small apple rests in her left hand, while her right hand touches the back of her head. In Paolina Borghese as Venus Victrix, Antonio Canova shows Napoleon’s sister reclining bare-breasted on a cushioned couch. The apple identifies her as Venus, the goddess who won the prize for beauty in the Judgment of Paris. Carved […]
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One elder presses a finger to his lips while Susanna turns on her seat and lifts her face upward. In Susanna and the Elders by Peter Paul Rubens, her extended leg crosses the foreground as the two men lean close behind her. They are judges threatening to accuse her of adultery unless she agrees to […]
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