Rome Off-the-Beaten-Path ➡️ Spada Gallery

Spada Gallery ⏱️ Opening Hours: 8:30-19:30 (Note: Closed on Tuesdays!) 💰 Admission: 6 euros (considered cheap in Rome) 🎨Highlight 1: The gallery consists of just one floor with four rooms, walls adorned with paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries. Prominent works include: Titian's portrait of a musician, Bernini's bust of Laocoön, The Death of Queen Dido, The Triumph of Jesus, and still lifes by Rubens, among others. The gallery offers a detailed PDF that can be downloaded for a guided viewing experience. 🎨Highlight 2: Rooms 2 and 3 feature walls and ceilings adorned with frescoes by Baroque masters from the 16th and 17th centuries. The ceiling fresco in room 3 is particularly Baroque, with themes of the four continents and the four seasons. 🎨Highlight 3: Rooms 2 and 4 display exquisite Chinese Qing Dynasty porcelain that blends Eastern and Western aesthetics. Upon inquiring with the staff, it's confirmed that the porcelain is indeed part of the family's collection, indicating the popularity of Chinese porcelain at the time. 🎨Highlight 4: Downstairs, there's a secret garden. Upon entering, you'll see a long corridor, or rather a short one, as it's only 9 meters long, but it appears to be dozens of meters long from the front, haha! This is an ingenious work by Borromini, playing with geometric perspective. The floor is raised on one side, columns become denser as you move along, and the ceiling's curvature shortens the distance, creating a visually extended corridor several times longer than it actually is! The sculpture at the end of the corridor is only 90 centimeters tall. The corridor faces the family mansion's study. Imagine looking out the window while taking a break from reading and seeing this profound corridor, as if experiencing a sudden enlightenment during the reading process, or like the poem written by the cardinal about it: Illusions can make small things appear grand, and what is considered great may also be proven to be illusory and insignificant. #TravelScenery #Art #DailyArtShare #Museum #ArtGallery #ItalianArtGallery #RomeArtGallery #SpadaGallery #Architecture #Borromini