Description
The Galleria Doria Pamphilj is a great private art collection, displayed in the family palace between Via del Corso and the Collegio Romano. It is still the largest inhabited private palace in Rome.
The most famous painting is the portrait of Innocent X painted by Velázquez in 1650: the pope is shown without embellishment, with an irregular face and a lively gaze that seems to follow whoever looks. It has a room all to itself, with the bust Bernini sculpted of the same pope.
Next to it are three Caravaggios, the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, the Penitent Magdalene and St. John the Baptist, and masterpieces by Titian, Raphael and Parmigianino. The paintings still hang side by side, as laid down by a manuscript of 1767.
You visit it by walking through four decorated, frescoed galleries around a Renaissance courtyard attributed to Bramante. One of the galleries is the Hall of Mirrors, overlooking the Corso.
The gallery was born in 1651, when the pope bound the Pamphilj works to his nephew Camillo forever. Camillo's marriage to Olimpia Aldobrandini, in 1647, had already brought paintings by Raphael, Titian and Parmigianino into the family.
Other masterpieces were bought by Olimpia Maidalchini, Camillo's powerful mother and the pope's confidante: among them, the Caravaggios. As the family's fortunes grew, the palace expanded almost continuously, up to the size it has today.
The collection was opened to the public for the first time in the Jubilee of 1950. A curiosity: Caravaggio's "Fortune Teller," originally in the collection, was given to Louis XIV in 1665 and is now in the Louvre.
Most of the works hang in the state rooms, which also include a chapel designed by Carlo Fontana with a vast collection of relics. Since 2013 the palace has belonged to a trust set up by the family, which has taken care of the restorations.
The most famous painting is the portrait of Innocent X painted by Velázquez in 1650: the pope is shown without embellishment, with an irregular face and a lively gaze that seems to follow whoever looks. It has a room all to itself, with the bust Bernini sculpted of the same pope.
Next to it are three Caravaggios, the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, the Penitent Magdalene and St. John the Baptist, and masterpieces by Titian, Raphael and Parmigianino. The paintings still hang side by side, as laid down by a manuscript of 1767.
You visit it by walking through four decorated, frescoed galleries around a Renaissance courtyard attributed to Bramante. One of the galleries is the Hall of Mirrors, overlooking the Corso.
The gallery was born in 1651, when the pope bound the Pamphilj works to his nephew Camillo forever. Camillo's marriage to Olimpia Aldobrandini, in 1647, had already brought paintings by Raphael, Titian and Parmigianino into the family.
Other masterpieces were bought by Olimpia Maidalchini, Camillo's powerful mother and the pope's confidante: among them, the Caravaggios. As the family's fortunes grew, the palace expanded almost continuously, up to the size it has today.
The collection was opened to the public for the first time in the Jubilee of 1950. A curiosity: Caravaggio's "Fortune Teller," originally in the collection, was given to Louis XIV in 1665 and is now in the Louvre.
Most of the works hang in the state rooms, which also include a chapel designed by Carlo Fontana with a vast collection of relics. Since 2013 the palace has belonged to a trust set up by the family, which has taken care of the restorations.