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Despite the family name,
Borghese taste was anything but bourgeois.
The exquisitely cultivated
Scipione not only advised his uncle Paul
V on artistic matters, but with papal pin
money amassed one of the world's greatest private
collections of sculpture and paintings.
Later members of the family
added to the collection, much of which
has landed in the Louvre, thanks to
Prince Camillo Borghese, who donated
or sold a large portion of it to his b rother
in law Napoleon.
The Italian State
purchased what remained in 1902.
The ground floor stars
the Borghese’s marble men and marble women;
Scipione was the first to discover precocious
talent of Gianlorenzo Bernini, and the sculptor
produced many of his earliest works for the
cardinal.
These statuary groups of
mythological subjects date from the early 1620s,
before Bernini got religion, and they
break new ground, for better or worse, in the
contriyed drama of their virtuoso figura
serpentine poses, each portrayed in
the most intense climactic moments of their
stories .
Looking at them, you may
think, as many have before you, that Bernini
was the Michelangelo of the day.
The sanctuary in each
room lent its theme to the grand 18th-century
decor of Prince Marcantonio, who
had a weakness for brightly colored, mildly
trompe l’oeil ceiling frescos.
The rooms are prominently
numbered, and begin with the most notorious
Room I where Canova's sculpture of
Pauline Bonaparte Borghese as Venus under a
ceiling portraying the Judgement of Paris.
When asked by an acquaintance
however she could have posed nearly naked, Pauline
replied that it wasn't so hard because the artist
had a furnace in his studio.
although serenely neoclassical,
Napoleon's sister is one of Rome's spicier
tomatoes (she had the statue made shortly after
marrying Prince Camillo Borghese to
please him); but as saucy as she was, she was
minute-the statue is life sized .
Connoisseurs may want to
compare her breasts with the cast in the
Napoleon Museum.

In
Room II Bernini's David is about
to discharge his loaded sling, though his set
look of determination is mocked by the
playful putti of the ceiling frescoes.
Room III is designed around another
hot piece of marble, Bernini's Daphne and Apollo,
the former in the act of turning into a laurel
tree to avoid the embraces of the god.
Room IV the large Sala degli
Imperatori a chilly cynosure of 18th-century
design, the 17th-century alabaster and porphyry
busts of the emperors in perfect chromatic accord
with the precious marbles of the floor, pillars,
and ceiling, all looking icily at Bernini's
Rape of Proserpina, the goddess struggling
in Pluto's arms, though perhaps not as desperately
as she might have done.
Room V contains a replica of the
famous Hellenistic Hermaphrodite, the
inspiration of the Hermaphrodite Room.
Room VI features Aeneas and
Anchises, Carved by young Bernini
with his father Pietro; Aeneas is carrying
his father out of burning Troy, while
the older man clutches the Palladium.
The Egyptian room,
Room VII
is actually built around an archaic
Greek statue of a young girl.
Room VIII contains the gallery's
finest ancient sculpture, the dancing
Faun, restored by Thorvaldsen.
Beyond this is the Salone,
crowned by a fresco of Marcus Furius Camillus
breaking the treaty with the Gauls and a relief
of Marco Curzio leaping the abyss.
Set into the floor are rather
grisly 3rd-century AD mosaics of gladiatorial
scenes from Torrenuova.
There's
a bar in the adjacent portico if you need liquid
support at this point.
Sometime, somehow, the
treasure trove of paintings upstairs will
reopen. Among the celebrated works are Raphael's
Manneristic Deposition , inspirited by Leonardo
and Michelangelo and filched with papal aid
from a church in Perugia; also his Lady
and the Unicorn, believed to a portrait of his
financeč Maddalena Strozzi;
Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, the beautifully
coloured , ambiguous masterpiece of his youth,
in which the two women have the same face;
Correggio's melting, erotic Danae;
Madonnas by Giovanni Bellini, Perugino,
Piero di Cosimo and Caravaggio (the latter with
a serpent); here too, is one of his most important
early works, the Boy with a Fruit Basket
and David with Goliath's head.
There are excellent portraits
by two masters of the genre, Lorenzo Lotto and
Antonello da Messina, whose Italian gentlemen
is a prototype of the genre; and Dosso Dossi's
mysterious Circe, contemplating her next spell.
Among the sculpture, don't
miss Bernini's portrait busts of cardinal
Scipione Borghese and Paul V, and
his model for the curly flowing equestrian
statue of Louis XIV, and Algardi's
statue of Sleep-aslumbering boy with
a sleepy dormouse.
OFFICIAL TOUR OF BORGHESE
GALLERY
Book your tour of
Borghese Gallery and skip the line:
take advantage of jumping the queue with
reserved tickets and enjoy your
Borghese Gallery
guided tour
The reopening
to the public of
the Borghese Gallery,
has been greeted as the most important event
which has taken place in the art world in recent
years.
This museum houses
the personal collection of Cardinal
Scipione Borghese, Pope Paul V's nephew,
a preeminent personality in his time, with a
great passion for art and with the means to
accomplish his projects.
The Gallery is immersed
in Rome's most beautiful park, close
to the city's historical center.
The Borghese Gallery
has maintained its prestige and its works of
art are exposed today as they were in
the past: furniture, paintings and sculptures.
It is one of Rome's richest
and most interesting villas, the Borghese
Gallery and
Museum
houses a vast and diverse collection of sculptures
and paintings produced by masters such
as Bernini, Canova, Caravaggio
and Titian.
Your guide will lead you
through the gallery's breathtaking rooms and
reveal the secrets, stories and techniques behind
the masterpieces.
Among the gallery's paintings we will
see Titian's "Sacred and Profane Love",
Raphael's "The Deposition" and
"Young Woman with Unicorn", Caravaggio's
"Madonna and Child with St. Anne" (Dei
Palafrenieri) and "Saint Jerome Writing".
We will admire sculptures
such as Bernini's "The Rape of Proserpina"
and "Apollo and Daphne" and Canova's
"Pauline Bonaparte".
In other words, don't pass
up this once in a lifetime opportunity to admire
such masterpieces, for which we must be thankful
to Cardinal Scipione Borghese's foresight.
Then, only on request, you can go for an enchanting
stroll though the Villa Borghese Gardens
and enjoy the surprises and tranquility of this
Eden in the heart of busy Rome.
The famous Villa Borghese
is a truly magical setting, surrounded by vast
gardens filled with fountains,
monuments and diverse flora.
Duration: 2 hours Borghese
Gallery guided visit
Itinerary in Borghese Gallery:
-
The Caravaggio
Room (St. Jerome, David with the Head of
Goliath)
-
Bernini sculptures (Apollo
and Daphne, David)
-
Canova sculpture
(Pauline Bonaparte)
-
Works by Raphael (The
Deposition, Lady with Unicorn)
-
Perugino (Madonna
and Child)
-
Rubens (The
Deposition)
-
itian (Sacred and Profane
Love)
Tours are conducted
in small groups (maximum 25 people) or
private tour (V.I.P. service) with an
English-speaking tour guide.
INFORMATION TO VISIT BORGHESE
GALLERY
The gallery is closed
every Monday and is open from 9 AM to 7 PM.
This means you have five
two hour time slots to choose from (you must
leave the gallery at the end of your two hour
period):
09 AM. - 11 AM.
11 PM. - 01 PM.
01 PM. - 03 PM.
03 PM. - 05 PM.
05 PM. - 07 PM.
Additional Information:
FOR MORE INFORMATION
ABOUT TOURS IN ROME:
OFFICIAL TOUR COMPANY OF ROME AND Vatican city
official TOUR COMPANY OF ROME AND Vatican city
www.tourinrome.com
www.vaticanguidedtour.com
info@romeinformation.info
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B&B near the
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Special offers 2010 !
Special
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