20 artists in the museums, in order of birthArtists to see in Rome

Painter, 1267 to 1337

Giotto

The painter with whom Italian painting begins made an altarpiece for the high altar of old St Peter's. It is in the Vatican picture gallery.

Proto-Renaissance. 2 works in 2 museums

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Painter, 1395 to 1455

Fra Angelico

The Dominican friar who painted the cells of San Marco in Florence spent his last years in Rome. A chapel he frescoed for the pope survives in the Vatican.

Early Renaissance. 2 works in 1 museum

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Painter, 1445 to 1510

Sandro Botticelli

The painter of the Birth of Venus left Florence once for a great commission: three of the frescoes on the side walls of the Sistine Chapel.

Early Renaissance. 3 works in 1 museum

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Painter, 1446 to 1523

Pietro Perugino

Raphael's teacher painted the calmest and most admired of the wall frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, the Delivery of the Keys.

Early Renaissance. 2 works in 1 museum

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Painter, 1452 to 1519

Leonardo da Vinci

Rome has one painting by Leonardo, and it is unfinished: the Saint Jerome in the Vatican picture gallery, found in pieces in the nineteenth century.

High Renaissance. 1 work in 1 museum

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Picture: Fabrizio Garrisi, CC BY-SA 4.0

Painter, 1454 to 1513

Pinturicchio

The most decorative painter of the fifteenth century covered the apartment of the Borgia pope in gold and colour. It is on the visitor's route through the Vatican.

Early Renaissance. 3 works in 3 museums

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Painter and sculptor, 1475 to 1564

Michelangelo

Rome is Michelangelo's city: the Sistine ceiling and the Last Judgment at the Vatican, the Pietà in St Peter's, the Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli, and the dome over them all.

High Renaissance. 5 works in 4 museums

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Painter, 1483 to 1520

Raphael

Raphael spent his last twelve years in Rome and painted the rooms of the pope's own apartment. He is buried in the Pantheon.

High Renaissance. 5 works in 4 museums

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Painter, 1488 to 1576

Titian

The greatest painter of Venice is in Rome through one early masterpiece, Sacred and Profane Love, the most famous painting in the Galleria Borghese.

Venetian Renaissance. 3 works in 2 museums

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Painter, 1560 to 1609

Annibale Carracci

Caravaggio's great rival painted the ceiling of the Farnese Gallery, which his century ranked beside the Sistine Chapel. He is buried in the Pantheon, near Raphael.

Baroque. 3 works in 3 museums

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Painter, 1571 to 1610

Caravaggio

No city has more Caravaggio than Rome: more than twenty paintings, six of them still in the churches they were painted for and free to see.

Baroque. 8 works in 7 museums

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Painter, 1575 to 1642

Guido Reni

For two hundred years Guido Reni was thought the equal of Raphael. Rome has his Aurora, his St Michael and his Crucifixion of St Peter.

Baroque. 4 works in 4 museums

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Painter, 1577 to 1640

Peter Paul Rubens

The great painter of the north learned his art in Italy. Rome keeps the altarpiece he painted for the Chiesa Nuova and his Romulus and Remus at the Capitoline.

Baroque. 2 works in 2 museums

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Painter, 1591 to 1666

Guercino

Guercino painted one of the largest altarpieces ever made for St Peter's. It now fills a wall of the Capitoline Museums.

Baroque. 2 works in 2 museums

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Picture: Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0

Painter, 1596 to 1669

Pietro da Cortona

The painter of the great ceiling of Palazzo Barberini, where the sky opens and a whole court of figures pours through it.

Baroque. 3 works in 3 museums

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Picture: Architas, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sculptor, 1598 to 1680

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Bernini made Baroque Rome: the colonnade and the canopy of St Peter's, the fountain of Piazza Navona, and the marbles of the Galleria Borghese that seem to breathe.

Baroque. 6 works in 4 museums

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Painter, 1599 to 1660

Diego Velázquez

The court painter of Spain came to Rome and painted the pope. The portrait of Innocent X, still in the family's palace, is often called the finest portrait ever painted.

Baroque. 2 works in 2 museums

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Picture: Architas, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sculptor, 1757 to 1822

Antonio Canova

The most famous sculptor of the age of Napoleon carved the emperor's sister half naked on a marble couch. She is in the Galleria Borghese.

Neoclassicism. 4 works in 4 museums

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Painter, 1853 to 1890

Vincent van Gogh

Rome has three paintings by Van Gogh from the last two years of his life: two at the national gallery of modern art, and a Pietà at the Vatican.

Post-Impressionism. 3 works in 2 museums

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Painter, 1862 to 1918

Gustav Klimt

One of the great paintings of Klimt's golden years is in Rome, not Vienna: The Three Ages of Woman, at the national gallery of modern art.

Vienna Secession. 1 work in 1 museum

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