Galleria Corsini
Discover Galleria Corsini
Last updated on September 29, 2026Overview
The Galleria Corsini occupies the piano nobile of the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Trastevere — a late-Baroque palace built for the Corsini family between 1730 and 1740 to designs by Ferdinando Fuga, elaborating a fifteenth-century villa of the Riario family that already stood on the site. It stands beside the Villa Farnesina.
The collection was gathered by Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini, nephew of Pope Clement XII, and added to from the collections of the pope and his family. What makes it unusual is what happened next: in the palace and its contents were sold to the state together, and the collection has been displayed in its original location ever since. It covers mainly Italian art from the early Renaissance to the late eighteenth century, religious and historical works alike, with Beato Angelico, Rubens, Van Dyck, Murillo and Ribera among the names.
The building has had a remarkable series of occupants. Between 1659 and 1689 the earlier Riario palace housed Christina, Queen of Sweden — who had abdicated, converted and moved to Rome — and under her patronage it hosted the first meetings of the Accademia dell'Arcadia. During the Napoleonic occupation it accommodated Joseph Bonaparte.
Today the palace also holds offices of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the same academy that runs the Villa Farnesina across the road, and the gardens rising up the Janiculum behind it belong to the Orto Botanico of La Sapienza.
Introduction
The Galleria Corsini occupies the piano nobile of the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Trastevere — a late-Baroque palace built for the Corsini family between 1730 and 1740 to designs by Ferdinando Fuga, elaborating a fifteenth-century villa of the Riario family that already stood on the site. It stands beside the Villa Farnesina.
The collection was gathered by Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini, nephew of Pope Clement XII, and added to from the collections of the pope and his family. What makes it unusual is what happened next: in the palace and its contents were sold to the state together, and the collection has been displayed in its original location ever since. It covers mainly Italian art from the early Renaissance to the late eighteenth century, religious and historical works alike, with Beato Angelico, Rubens, Van Dyck, Murillo and Ribera among the names.
The building has had a remarkable series of occupants. Between 1659 and 1689 the earlier Riario palace housed Christina, Queen of Sweden — who had abdicated, converted and moved to Rome — and under her patronage it hosted the first meetings of the Accademia dell'Arcadia. During the Napoleonic occupation it accommodated Joseph Bonaparte.
Today the palace also holds offices of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the same academy that runs the Villa Farnesina across the road, and the gardens rising up the Janiculum behind it belong to the Orto Botanico of La Sapienza.
Architecture
A late-Baroque palace wrapped around a fifteenth-century villa. Ferdinando Fuga's building of 1730–1740 was an elaboration of the Riario villa already on the site rather than a replacement — the same approach Maderno took at Palazzo Barberini a century earlier, and for the same reason: the existing house was serviceable and the site was constrained.
The garden front is the face worth seeing. The Via della Lungara elevation is a street facade on a narrow road; the long front behind, overlooking what is now the Orto Botanico, is where Fuga's architecture opens out. It is also where the palms of the Botanical Garden now stand in front of it, which is not what he designed for but suits it.
The gallery is an apartment, not a museum floor. The collection occupies the piano nobile in rooms of domestic proportion, hung in the eighteenth-century manner — pictures stacked several high, frame close to frame, with no attempt at the spacing a modern gallery would impose. Because palace and pictures were sold together in 1883, nobody has ever had cause to rearrange it.
Fuga also built the facade of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the 1740s, immediately after this. The two buildings are worth seeing in that order: the same architect working first for a family and then for a pope.
How It Was Built and Evolved Over Time
It was built on top of something worth keeping. A fifteenth-century villa of the Riario family already stood on the Via della Lungara, and the late-Baroque palace raised for the Corsini between 1730 and 1740 was an elaboration of it rather than a clearance. Ferdinando Fuga designed the result.
The commission followed the money, and the money followed a papal election. Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini became Pope Clement XII, and in his nephew Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini acquired the villa and its land and commissioned the building that stands today. It is the same sequence as Palazzo Barberini a century before — a family elevated by a papacy, buying a site and rebuilding it at scale — and the two palaces now share a ticket.
The collection was assembled to go in it. Neri Maria Corsini was an avid collector, and the family's holdings were added to from the collections of Clement XII and his nephew. The pictures and the rooms were therefore designed for one another, which is why the hang still makes sense.
And then the whole thing was sold in one piece. In the palace and its contents passed to the state together. That is the decision the visit depends on: because nothing was sold separately, nothing had to be rehung, and the collection is displayed in its original location. Most historic collections in Europe reached their museums as crates of pictures; this one reached it as a house.
What has changed since is occupancy rather than fabric. The palace now holds offices of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei alongside the gallery, and the gardens climbing the Janiculum behind it form part of the Orto Botanico of La Sapienza — which is why a combined ticket with a botanical garden exists at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Galleria Corsini? An eighteenth-century picture gallery on the piano nobile of the Palazzo Corsini in Trastevere, holding the Corsini family collection — Beato Angelico, Rubens, Van Dyck, Murillo, Ribera — displayed in its original location.
Why does that matter? Because palace and collection were sold to the state together in 1883, nothing was ever rehung. Most historic collections reached their museums as crates of pictures; this one reached it as a house.
What does it cost? €8.00 for this gallery alone; €15.00 for the Galleria Corsini and Palazzo Barberini together, valid twenty days; €2.00 for that same two-palace ticket if you are an EU citizen aged 18 to 25; €10.00 combined with the Orto Botanico.
Which ticket should I buy? The €15 one, unless you are certain you will not reach Palazzo Barberini within twenty days. It is seven euros more for a far larger collection.
Is it open on Mondays? No. Tuesday to Sunday, 10.00 to 19.00, last entrance 18.00. Also closed 25 December and 1 January.
Who built it? Ferdinando Fuga, between 1730 and 1740, for Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini — elaborating a fifteenth-century Riario villa already on the site. Fuga went on to build the facade of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Did Christina of Sweden really live here? In the earlier Riario palace on this site, between 1659 and 1689, after abdicating her throne and converting. The Accademia dell'Arcadia held its first meetings here under her patronage.
What is the Botanical Garden connection? The gardens rising the Janiculum behind the palace are the Orto Botanico of La Sapienza, and a combined ticket covers both.
How long does it take? About seventy-five minutes. It is one floor.