Seventeenth century Rome reasserted its pre-eminence as the centre of Christendom after the previous traumas of Reformation and internal reform. The new dynamism attracted artists from across Italy and beyond. We will study the dramatic innovations of Caravaggio and Bernini, the architecture or Bernini, paintings by Annibale Carraci, Guido Reni and the harmonious art of the Frenchmen Poussin and Claude Lorraine.