We find ourselves on the courtyards of the palace of the Mattei family, whose members exhibited collector’s and artistic ambitions. This is expressed by the sculptures found at the courtyards, exhibited here thanks to a significant family member – Asdrubale Mattei, Duke of Giove. Married with the heiress of the Gonzaga family – Constance of Mantua, in this rather unusual way for the time period, he demonstrated who he was and what his interests were. The items gathered here were found during excavations conducted in Rome. The wealthy families all wanted to be the first to purchase these archeological treasures, which were often supplemented by current artifacts, that only imitated ancient ones. Asdrubale as well as his ancestors were also caught up in this craze, amassing in this way, rather extensive collections of art. However, he and his brothers did not focus only on ancient art – their great passion was contemporary painting, and especially Caravaggio, who had painted several paintings for the family and stayed in the palace in 1601, showered with praise and esteem.

The palace itself was planned and built in the years 1598-1611 by the creator of the façade of the Basilica of San Pietro in Vaticano – Carlo Maderno. It was his first and only design of a city palace. He equipped it with a raw façade on the side of the street, an interior courtyard, a loggia, and a terrace. The interior painting decorations were completed by other known artists of that time, including Pietro da Cortona, Francesco Albani, Giovanni Lanfranco, and Domenichino.  All of these depict religious scenes, mainly taken from the Old Testament (the life of Joseph, James, Salomon), which must be attributed to the deep religiousness of the family members, discarding other, popular at that time themes of interior decoration.

The Mattei family was one of the most important in the city. From within its ranks came eight cardinals, while its roots reached all the way back to the XIII century and Pope Gregory IX, a fact that was frequently and willingly pointed out. At that time the Matteis, bought out the area in the neighborhood of the present-day palace, creating six households concentrated in one block (Isola Mattei). In mid-XVI century the investment proved to be exceptionally profitable, when Pope Paul IV, constructed a wall near the Mattei estates, separating it from the Jewish Quarter, while they themselves received the pope’s permission to control trade and collect fees for products taken out and brought into the ghetto located there. For centuries they closed and opened its gates. There was even a Roman saying: “The worse the Jews, the better for the Matteis”.

The crash connected with the bankruptcy of the Santo Spirito Bank in the XVIII century caused an irreparable ruin of the family, which was soon extinguished. The poet, Giacomo Leopardi who had lived in their palace in 1822, described his stay in the following way: “this house is filled with disorder, chaos, emptiness, an unbearable small-mindedness, degeneration and other horrible circumstances”. The outstanding collection of art, gathered by the family, was sold to a Scottish collector in the XIX century and taken out of Rome, while the building itself was purchased by the Italian state in 1938.

Today it houses various departments of the Italian Ministry of Culture, including the Italian Institute, library of modern and new history, institute of recording and audiovisual media, as well as Center for American Studies.