Designed by painter-architect Federico Zuccari, the Palazzo Zuccari in Rome has as its entrance a gaping stone mouth—an example of late-Renaissance fascination with the grotesque, illusion, and theatrical façades. Built near the Spanish Steps, the house was conceived as a personal statement where architecture performs as art.

Today, this once-provocative portal is part of the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History), giving Rome’s most playful doorway an unexpectedly scholarly afterlife.

I’m took these photos on a recent evening in Roma.

Even the windows are human shaped. At night they are most effective!

I am and always have been in love with this doorway!