Caravaggio at the Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini Like many cities in Europe, Rome has taken many of its old palaces and turned them into museums. The Palazzo Barberini is and excellent example, now using the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica (National Gallery of Antique Art). The Palazzo Barberini was built between 1625 and 1633 by Maffeo Barberini, who had recently been anointed as Pope Urban VIII. The Barberini family were nobility and made their fortune as trade merchants. It was around this time that they created a workshop that created tapestries. The Barberini family lived in the palazzo until 1955. The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica was founded in 1893. In 1883 Tomaso Corsini sold his palace to the Italian government, along with his entire collection of paintings. This collection formed the original gallery and was housed in the Palazzo Corsini, where it is still on the walls, the way the Corsini family had them arranged. Over the years the museum grew, and in 1953 Italy purchased the Palazzo Barberin...