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Borghese
The Villa was transformed into a museum in 1902, when it was sold to the State, along with the private art collection and the Park. Cardinal Scipione Borghese was the nephew of another prominent member of this family, Pope Paul V.
They represent the fights of the gladiators and the hunting of wild animals combats of the arena. Near the walls are numerous statues from Roman times, of pagan divinities and emperors. Throughout the gallery is a large display of valuable marbles and antiquities all recovered from the ruins. These innumerable works of art the patrician families of Rome rescued and they used them to decorate their sumptuous homes. But the important reason for us to come to this museum is to see the portrait of pouline Bonaparte by Canova, a few statues by Bernini and some paintings of importance on the first floor. We go first to the right, to the room where, reclining as a Venus on an Empire cough and holding as a Paris in one hand, is Pauline Bonaparte, the youngest sister of Napoleon who was married to prince Camillo Borghese. This world famous masterpiece is the trait she commissioned from Antonio Canova, the leader of the Neo Classical style of the 19th century. It is one of the finest examples of this style which bloomed actually as a reaction to the exaggerations of the Baroque style, by which it was preceded. The Neo Classical style was a new revival of Grecian and Roman art, an imitation of classic art, which always remained a little cold; the statue of Pauline is the only exception. In the lovely figure, all grace and charm, in the softness of the various details, you hardly notice that the sculptor strictly follows the canons of classic art. This is the best work by Canova, it certainly also depended on the personality of the model. The fact that Pauline posed naked was taken as an outrage by the Borghese family, but she would not pay much attention to their criticism, modesty, as we know, not being her main virtue.
In the next room is the statue of David by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bernini (1598 1680), at the age of seven moved to Rome, where he spent the rest of his life. He was primarily a sculptor, like his father Pietro Bernini, a talented artist of the late Renaissance, but young Lorenzo had the versatility of the great Renaissance masters, and turned his genius to architecture and painting as well. In his long life he served eight Popes and made of Rome a Baroque city. This statue he executed on commission by his admirer and patron, Cardinal Scipione in 1623 24, when he was only 25 years old. For this David he chose the moment of action before the hurling of the stone against Goliath. The figure is freely moving in space, and is extremely realistic; Bernini has transfused in the marble the impetuosity, the fury and the determination of the biblical hero. The face is a self portrait. David's extreme realism and movement were the innovations which announced the birth of the style known as Baroque (from Spanish <
The pagan legend of Apollo chasing the lovely nymph, made into a laurel tree when she was overtaken, is represented in the moment of the metamorphosis. Bernini's talent appears more evident in this work; we note his extraordinary technical skill in giving all the minute details and the exact texture of the various parts from one single piece of marble. We read the expression of horror and amazement on their faces. Although there are some classical reminiscences, the work has all of Bernini's temperament. (Compare this one with the Apollo Belvedere at the Vatican).
Through a small room, which had been a private chapel, we pass into the Sala degli Imperatori (the room of the Emperors). This resplendent room, decorated all around with porphyry and alabaster busts of Roman Emperors copied from Roman portraits, is dominated by the group of Pluto and Proserpina, in the center, also by Bernini. This sculpture, which preceded the other two, shows in its technical virtuosity (the hand of Pluto sinking into the soft flesh of Persephone, the tears, etc.) the influence of mannerism, but the softness of Persephone's figure, the movement, the vigour and the violence show Bernini's exuberance and anticipate his innovations and his freedom of creation.
The Baroque style prevailed for about two hundred years; due to the exaggerations of Bernini's followers, the style fell into ostentation and became too showy and theatrical; the spontaneous reaction to it was, as we saw, the Neo Classical style of the 19th century.
The actual picture gallery is on the upper floor. In the room opposite the top of the staircase we find three Paintings by Raphaels.
A Deposition, signed and dated 1507, commissioned to him by Atalanta Baglioni to commemorate her dead son. A beautifully proportioned composition, but its extreme balance has weakened the profound
sense of grief, the main theme of the picture.
A Portrait of Young Woman with the Unicorn, this picture had been painted over to represent St. Catherine; restorations proved Raphael's authorship.
A Portrait of Man, which also had been painted over and again restorations revealed Raphael's hand. On the opposite wall is the Madonna and Child by Botticelli, not one of his greatest works, but it has Botticelli's charm and the accuracy of design typical of Florentine art. Another Madonna and Child by Perugino, the teacher of Raphael, and next to it a Crucifixion by Pinturicchio, the other leading painter of the Umbrian School XV century. In this picture is a lovely Umbrian landscape, with St. Christopher fording the river carrying the Child on his shoulder, in the foreground.
We return to the stairs and enter the large central room, which was decorated on the ceiling by Giovanni Lanfranco in the XVII century, depicting the gods of the Olympus, and all around the caryatids, which seem to support the roof. This is called the Room of Caravaggio, whose paintings are recognisable by the sharp contrast of light and the realism of his Saints and Madonnas; because of this realism the Church refused some of his sacred representations, but Caravaggio's new manner was to prevail, and Cardinal Scipione Borghese himself bought the picture of the Madonna dei Palafrenieri which hangs on one of the end walls. Next to it, by the window, is the David with Goliath's Head, the head of Goliath being a dramatic self portrait. Two more works by Caravaggio in this room are The Boy with Basket of Fruit and the Young Bacchus ill, another self portrait when the artist had malaria. Caravaggio lived a short but adventurous life; he died at the age of 3T in 1610. He opened new ways for European painting. On the opposite end wall is the large painting of the Hunting of Diana by Domenichino, XVII century, a typical manneristic work.
This room also contains some works by Bernini. The portrait, an excellent one, of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, perfect in the physical features and in the psychology of the subject; a replica of this portrait is at the other end of the same wall; Bernini made it in fifteen days, for the original cracked because of a flaw in the marble. There is also the terracotta model for the equestrian monument to Louis XIV which was never executed.
Through a small room containing three paintings by Bernini and one by Rubens, we reach the room of the Danae by Correggio, another gem of this collection. This prominent painter of the XVI century, from Parma, is, by some authorities, considered to be almost as great as Titian for the handling of colors. The painting has a most wonderful golden, hazy luminescence, irradiating from the golden cloud into which Jupiter had transformed himself to enter Danae's prison.
A good study of color in the mysterious Circe, by Dosso Dossi from Ferrara, XVI century (on the opposite wall).
The culmination of the whole gallery is in the next room.
It is the most famous Sacred and Profane Love by Titian, which everyone knows from reproductions, but no reproduction can prepare you for the perfect rendering of the brilliant silk draperies, the radiant fleshy tints and the warm, clear light. The Sacred and Profane Love is an early work by Titian, who died at the age of 99; the other three works in this room are of the last period.
The Scourging of Christ is a late picture in which the suffering and pain are expressed through color and light effects. The study of color also prevails in the spiritual struggle of St. Dominic and in the painting of Venus Blindfolding Love.
Now we retrace our steps to the stairs and then to the exit. Our drive will take us across the Gardens of Villa Borghese, which appears more of an English landscaped park than a formal Italian garden; the layout of the park was redesigned by the Scottish artist Jacob More and the Italian Camporese in the XVIII century.
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When entering the museum we are overwhelmed by the fresco painting on the ceiling of the entrance hall; it is the work of a Sicilian born artist, Mariano Rossi, XVIII century, depicting events from Roman history and pagan mythology. On the floor we notice five mosaics, dating from the third century A.D. and found at Torrenova, near Tusculum, a few miles from Rome.
