A dialogue between Rome and Vienna unfolds through the prestigious collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, weaving its way among the masterpieces of the Habsburg imperial collections and tracing the cultural routes that connected the two capitals and their artistic expressions. With over fifty selected works, commissioned between the 16th and 18th centuries by the Austrian imperial family, the exhibition aims to reconstruct on Italian soil the historical and cultural identity of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, offering visitors a privileged insight into the splendor, collecting taste, and political vision of one of the most powerful dynasties in European history.The volume guides the reader along a path that intertwines art, history, and power: from reflections on the dynamics of collecting to the reception of Habsburg taste in Italy. Through essays and scholarly insights, the book highlights an extraordinary body of masterpieces ranging from Peter Paul Rubens to Diego Velázquez, including Antoon van Dyck and Lucas Cranach, alongside the great masters of the Italian tradition such as Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Arcimboldo.