In the heart of Rome, a stone's throw from Piazza Navona, Palazzo Altemps is a Renaissance treasure chest housing important collections of ancient sculpture, outstanding among them the collection assembled by Cardinal Markus Sitticus Altemps in the second half of the 16th century and the historic collection of the Boncompagni Ludovisi family, acquired by the Italian State in 1901.
The arrangement of the works in the rooms of Palazzo Altemps reproduces the antiquarian taste of the late 16th century and the baroque era. Noteworthy frescoes have been preserved in some parts of the first floor, such as the Room of the Painted Perspectives and the Room of the Ludovisi Ares, which
is decorated with a 15th-century representation of an array of dishes. The loggia frescoed with a refined pergola faces onto the splendid courtyard and houses a series of portraits of Roman emperors. Among the works on display are the celebrated masterpieces of the Boncompagni Ludovisi collection: the famous Throne and the Acrolith, dated to the 5th century BC, the Ares, a work from the late 2nd century BC restored by Bernini, and the group of the Gaul Killing Himself and His Wife, a Roman copy of a bronze original from the 3rd century BC.