ItalyTraveller experience.

One of the many surprises which the Italian capital reserves for the more curious of its visitors is conserved amidst the narrow streets off Campo dei Fiori. In Piazza Capodiferro, we come across the elegant Renaissance facade of Palazzo Spada, an edifice constructed in the 16th century for the Cardinal Girolamo Capodiferro and purchased a century later by the Cardinal Bernardino Spada, a cultured and eccentric ecclesiastic with a passion for Baroque art. Although the palazzo is now the head quarters of the State Council, four of its halls are open to the general public and it is here, in the Spada Gallery, that the Cardinal's collection of works by as many as 140 painters, sculptors, architects and master watchmakers, is displayed.

One of the museum's most interesting features is its Perspective Gallery, designed by Francesco Borromini. This gallery is a masterpiece of false perspective in which diminishing rows of columns and a rising floor create the optical illusion of a gallery some 29 meters longer than the actual 8. The museum contains masterpieces by Guido Reni, Guercino, Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, and Andrea del Sarto. Federico Zeri, who in the 1950's was the director of the museum, hung religious, mythical, and landscape paintings frame-to-frame in typical 17th century style, in the same rooms as clocks, busts, and maps, thus creating a fabulous mixture which best represents the 17th and 18th century passion for collection.

The Sala dei Mappamondi and the Corridoio delle Meridiana, where the hours are marked by the sunrays reflected in a mirror, reveal the Cardinal's interest in astronomy, an interest which led him to defend Galileo Galilei and his revolutionary theories. Spada's love of trompe l'oeil and optical illusions emerges further in the Salone di Pompei, which is embellished with frescoes with balconies over which noblemen really do seem to lean and loggias which appear to open out on to real, and not imaginary landscapes. The Galleria degli Stucchi, which is decorated with allegorical statues and oil paintings, is no less spectacular. These last halls belong to the State Council. Guided visits are available by reservation only, every first Sunday of the month.

Palazzo Spada
Piazza Capodiferro, 13
Roma
Tel. +39 06 6832409

Opening hours:
Galleria Spada: from Tuesday to Sunday 08.30 - 19.30
State Council rooms: first Sunday of the month from 10.30 -11.30 - 12.30