Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica (Palazzo Barberini)

Palazzo Barberini was built between 1625 and 1633 under three architects: Carlo Maderno began the design, and after his death Gian Lorenzo Bernini took over with Francesco Borromini also contributing, including his distinctive helicoidal staircase. The palace now houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, one of Italy's leading collections of Old Master painting.

The gallery's most famous work is Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes. The palace's grand salon is crowned by Pietro da Cortona's ceiling fresco Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power (1639), a Baroque showpiece also referred to as The Triumph of Divine Providence that influenced palace decoration across Europe.

Also on view is Guercino's Et in Arcadia Ego (1618), an early treatment of the memento mori theme that later painters, including Poussin, would revisit.