Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Galleria Borghese: Visitor's Guide
    Galleria Borghese: Visitor's Guide
    Galleria Borghese: Visitor's Guide
    Ebook277 pages2 hours

    Galleria Borghese: Visitor's Guide

    By Anna Coliva

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    An exhaustive and enjoyable guide to the superb collection that Cardinal Scipione Borghese installed in his “Villa Outside Porta Pinciana”, now the Borghese Gallery, in 1616, comprising masterpieces of art and sculpture by Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Cranach, Bernini, Caravaggio, and many more. The book accompanies visitors through the museum, room by room, providing the information needed to find out more about the rich collection and to appreciate the decorative scheme in the interior of the villa, which was completely refurbished by Prince Marcantonio IV at the end of the 18th century.
    The guide is richly illustrated with carefully selected colour photographs of the masterpieces in the gallery, each of which is accompanied by a short explanatory text designed to be read while standing before the selected work.
    This is the first guide to include the artworks in the Gallery’s lovely Storerooms (admission by booking in advance), giving visitors the opportunity to extend their visit beyond the twenty rooms of the Museum.
    The cover flaps contain the museum plans, which can be unfolded for easy consultation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGebart SpA
    Release dateFeb 12, 2020
    ISBN9788898302581
    Galleria Borghese: Visitor's Guide

    Related to Galleria Borghese

    Related ebooks

    Art For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      In Search Of Raphael

      Sep 3, 2020

      Viale Vaticano http://m.museivaticani.va After three years as pope, Julius II (pontiff 1503-13) decided to move out of the papal apartments in the Vatican, which were decorated to the taste of his predecessor, Pope Alexander VI Borgia (pontiff 1492-1

      5 min read

    • Article

      Madrid, Spain

      Nov 23, 2023

      Madrid, Spain
      3 min read

    • Article

      Return To The City Of Lilies

      Sep 21, 2022

      Return To The City Of Lilies
      4 min read

    • Article

      The School Of Athens

      Dec 31, 2020

      The School Of Athens
      1 min read

    • Article

      See The Masterpieces

      Apr 25, 2019

      See The Masterpieces
      3 min read

    • Article

      Out With The Old Masters?

      Dec 23, 2020

      Out With The Old Masters?
      9 min read

    • Article

      Finders, Keepers

      May 5, 2022

      Finders, Keepers
      3 min read

    • Article

      Intuition

      Nov 29, 2017

      Intuition
      1 min read

    • Article

      Cultural Connections

      May 26, 2020

      Cultural Connections
      4 min read

    • Article

      Studio

      Nov 25, 2021

      THE ITALIAN ENGRAVER GIAMBATTISTA PIRANESI (1720 — 1778) is most famous for Imaginary Prisons, a series of dark, nightmarish images of the insides of colossal buildings [1] [2]. They contain stairways that lead nowhere, perspectives that contradict e

      4 min read

    • Article

      Private Equity

      Dec 23, 2022

      “I like timeless works that move me and inspire me, ancient architecture such as Egyptian, Roman, nomadic or tribal constructions. I'm a modernist at heart, and some of the masters who have influenced me are Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn, Luis Barragán an

      4 min read

    • Article

      Studio

      Feb 29, 2024

      Studio
      7 min read

    • Article

      In Glorious Technicolour

      Dec 1, 2021

      IMAGINE a visit to the National Gallery in which every picture you see is black and white. The faces, the landscapes, even the dramas are all clear. They are simply devoid of colour. Fine, you might say, but something is missing. That is how I react

      4 min read

    • Article

      Gazzetta Italia!

      May 5, 2022

      In this edition of our bilingual feature, Tom Alberto Bull reports on an important new Donatello exhibition opening at the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Musei del Bargello Useful Italian words and phrases to add to your vocabulary □ Il periodo d

      4 min read

    • Article

      Raphael In Rome

      Sep 3, 2020

      Raphael In Rome
      3 min read

    • Article

      Woman About Town

      Apr 27, 2023

      THE SHOW BY MEXICAN ARTIST Bosco Sodi at the Palazzo Vendramin Grimani divided opinion in Venice last year. What Goes Around Comes Around was described as a reconfiguring of the journey of raw materials which had conventionally flowed just one way in

      3 min read

    • Article

      Paris, Je T’aime

      Nov 15, 2023

      Paris, Je T’aime
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Porcelain of Capodimonte

      Mar 13, 2024

      The Porcelain of Capodimonte
      4 min read

    • Article

      Opening Up The British Museum

      Oct 29, 2020

      Opening Up The British Museum
      10 min read

    • Article

      Owned By Others

      Jul 3, 2021

      Owned By Others
      5 min read

    • Article

      NORTHERN Lights

      Feb 13, 2020

      NORTHERN Lights
      8 min read

    • Article

      Dutch Masters

      Mar 1, 2024

      Dutch Masters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Las Meninas

      Jan 27, 2022

      Las Meninas
      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Galleria Borghese

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Galleria Borghese - Anna Coliva

      GALLERIA

      BORGHESE

      VISITOR’S GUIDE

      BASEMENT

      ENTRANCE HALL, RECEPTION, AND AMENITIES

      GROUND FLOOR

      SCULPTURES

      FIRST FLOOR

      PICTURE GALLERY

      SECOND FLOOR

      STOREROOMS

      GALLERIA

      BORGHESE

      VISITOR'S GUIDE

      by Anna Coliva

      © 2019 Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali,

      Galleria Borghese and Anna Coliva

      (All rights reserved)

      EBOOK ISBN  978-88-98302-58-1

      Printed in Italy

      Publisher

      Gebart S.p.A.

      Via Prenestina 683 – 00155 Rome

      Tel. 06 2285442 – Fax 06 22754229

      www.gebart.it

      Editor-in-chief

      Stefania Spirito

      Bibliographical research, illustrations and editing

      Sofia Barchiesi

      Graphic design

      Sebastiano Girardi Studio

      Layout

      Berardi Design

      Translation

      Oona Smyth

      Photolithography

      Miligraf S.r.l, Roma

      Printing

      Arti Grafiche Picene S.r.l., Pomezia (Rome)

      Photographic credits

      © 2019 Courtesy of Ministero

      per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Galleria Borghese

      Although every effort has been made to identify sources of images used, copyright holders are invited to contact the publisher relative to eventual omissions.

      Acknowledgements

      The publisher would like to thank Lia di Giacomo and Maria Castellino from the Archivio iconografico del Polo Museale del Lazio; Geraldine Leandri and Maria Giovan- na Sardi, MiBAC art historians and all of the Museum’s security staff.

      Cover illustration

      Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne,

      1622/1625, Room of Apollo and Daphne (Room III),

      Galleria Borghese, Rome

      Facing title page

      Room of the Sun (Room II),

      Galleria Borghese, Rome

      CONTENTS

      ROOMS

      INTRODUCTION

      GROUND FLOOR

      P Portico

      H Hall of Mariano Rossi

      I Room of the Vase

      II Room of the Sun

      III Room of Apollo and Daphne

      C Chapel

      IV Gallery of the Emperors

      V Room of the Hermaphrodite

      VI Room of the Gladiator

      VII The Egyptian Room

      VIII Room of Silenus

      FIRST FLOOR / PICTURE GALLERY

      EH Entrance Hall

      IX Room of the Three Graces

      X Room of Sleep

      XI Small Gallery

      XII Room of the Bacchanti

      XIII Room of Fame

      XIV Gallery of Lanfranco

      XV Room of Aurora

      PS Passageway

      XVI Room of Flora

      XVII Room of the Count of Angers

      XVIII Room of Jupiter and Antiope

      XIX Room of Helen and Paris

      XX Room of the Centaur

      SECOND FLOOR / STOREROOMS

      Storerooms

      APPENDIX

      Essential bibliography

      Index of names

      PICTURE GALLERY

      INTRODUCTION

      The Galleria Borghese, originally known as the Villa outside Porta Pinciana, was built for Scipione Caffarelli Borghese (1577-1633). Con- struction began in 1607 and by 1616, the villa was completed and all of the collections installed. The façade alone featured one hundred and forty-four bas-reliefs, seventy busts and an exquisite embellishment, which is itself a work of art, as can be seen in the lovely painting by Johann Wilhem Baur on display on the second floor of the museum.

      The fortune required to complete such an ambitious project and assemble a collection held to be one of the most beautiful in the world came to Scipione by virtue of being the nephew of Pope Paul V, who was elected to the papal throne on 16 May 1605; soon after his election (in July), the pope conferred a cardinalship upon Scipio- ne, who thus obtained all the stipends – and powers – that this of- fice entitled him to. These privileges were not the fruit of a personal whim but connected to the complex phenomenon of nepotism. By the time of Sixtus V, this practice was a consolidated tradition assign- ing clearly defined political and cultural functions to the pope’s car- dinal-nephew. Rome was a complete anomaly in having an elective rather than a hereditary absolute monarchy, meaning that it had to create its own heir to whom sovereign power could be transmitted, taking swift steps to concentrate wealth and power in this figure.

      Every new pope needed to erect residences worthy of his rank as sovereign that would be filled with collections, the true instruments of power.

      The Villa Borghese was as idiosyncratic as its owner, evoking Sci- pione’s personal tastes as well as displaying his power. Its unique his- tory stems from its origins as a building fulfilling a sole function, not as a dwelling but as a showplace designed to hold collections, distinguishing it from all other contemporary models of building. It adopted a completely new concept, that of a museum showcasing collections that required none of the comfort and luxury necessary for residential or representational purposes. In fact, it was never pro- vided with apartments, only rooms and galleries designed to display or stage the collection. Even the furnishings complied with these thematic and compositional requirements, and were designed as part of an artistic rather than a residential setting. Unlike other magnifi- cent 16th- and 17th-century palaces, the villa was never provided with a Statue or Picture Gallery because the works in its holdings were on display in every single room. Masterpieces of antique statuary fol- lowed by large-scale sculpture groups by Bernini were set up in rooms that were then named after them: the Room of the Vase, the Room of the Hermaphrodite and so on, as they are still known today.

      Modern visitors can still perceive this, feeling all the power of a place deriving not only from the extraordinary masterpieces that can be admired there but also from the supreme harmony that conceals a complex underlying idea determined by beauty, by the transfigurative power of the myth embodied in the countless stories and seductive fables narrated through the painted and sculpted figures that still en- chant us today.

      It was clear from the start that this was a place created to bring together but also to produce works of art like the ones that Scipione commissioned from contemporary artists. In fact, Villa Borghese had its own printed museum guide, the first of its kind, written by Jaco- mo Manilli, the Guardarobba (1650) or custodian of the Villa.

      The idea of a museum ante litteram was clearly perceived within the Borghese family at the time and by their later descendants. In 1770, when Marcantonio IV (1730-1800) and his brilliant architect Antonio Asprucci (1723-1808) completely renovated the villa’s decorative schemes, they moved the masterpieces of sculpture, whether antique works or ‘modern’ creations by Bernini, to the centre of their rooms, raising them up on high pedestals, yet again anticipating what would become the standard display arrangements in that new inven- tion of modern culture: the museum. This was a place extending its continuity into the real theatre of human life for guests, visitors, and curious travellers for whom antiquity and myth were tangible

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1