The National Galleries of Ancient Art present from 21 February to 15 June 2020 , in the headquarters of Galleria Corsini, the Rembrandt exhibition at the Galleria Corsini: the Self-portrait as Saint Paul , curated by Alessandro Cosma.

Coming from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the extraordinary self-portrait of Rembrandt, signed and dated 1661, which in the eighteenth century was part of the Corsini collection and was exhibited in the halls of the Palazzo alla Lungara, will be exhibited for the first time in Italy after 1799.

The work was in fact purchased between 1737 and 1739 by Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini for 100 scudi from Marie-Thérèse Gosset, widow of Nicolas Vleughels, director of the French Academy in Rome.

A recent documentary rediscovery has today made it clear that the work was the protagonist of an emblematic episode of the dispersion of works of art during the French occupation of 1799.

In fact, in that year the Corsini family was forced to face the forced contributions imposed by the French government on the noble Roman families. In the absence of Prince Tommaso, who took refuge in Vienna, the Corsinis' "house master", Ludovico Radice, organized the sale of 25 paintings from the collection to the well-known art dealer Luigi Mirri, who immediately resold part of them to the English William Ottley.