Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Museo e Galleria Borghese
MUSEUM
( 06 3 28 10;
www.galleriaborghese.it
; Piazzale del Museo Borghese 5; adult/reduced €9/4.50, plus €2
booking fee and possible exhibition supplement; 9am-7pm Tue-Sun, pre-booking necessary; Via
Pinciana)
If you only have time (or inclination) for one art gallery in Rome, make it this
one. Housing the 'queen of all private art collections', it provides the perfect introduction
to Renaissance and baroque art without ever being overwhelming. To limit numbers, visit-
ors are admitted at two-hourly intervals, so you'll need to pre-book.
The collection, which includes paintings by Caravaggio, Botticelli and Raphael, as well
as some spectacular sculptures by Bernini, was formed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese
(1579-1633), the most knowledgeable and ruthless art collector of his day. It's housed in
the Casino Borghese, whose neoclassical look is the result of a 17th-century revamp of
Scipione's original villa.
The museum is divided into two parts: the ground-floor gallery, with its superb sculp-
tures, intricate Roman floor mosaics and over-the-top frescoes; and the upstairs picture
gallery.
Things get off to a cracking start in the
entrance hall
, decorated with 4th-century floor
mosaics of fighting gladiators and a gravity-defying bas-relief of a horse and rider falling
into the void by Pietro Bernini.
Sala I
is centred on Antonio Canova's daring depiction of Napoleon's sister, Paolina
Bonaparte Borghese, reclining topless as
Venere vincitrice
(Conquering Venus; 1805-08).
Yet it's Gian Lorenzo Bernini's spectacular sculptures - flamboyant depictions of pagan
myths - that really steal the show. Just look at Daphne's hands morphing into leaves in the
swirling
Apollo e Dafne
(Apollo and Daphne; 1622-25) in
Sala III
, or Pluto's hand press-
ing into the seemingly soft flesh of Persephone's thigh in the
Ratto di Proserpina
(Rape of
Persephone; 1621-22) in
Sala IV
.
Caravaggio dominates
Sala VIII
. You'll see a dissipated-looking
Bacchino malato
(Young Sick Bacchus; 1593-94), the strangely beautiful
La Madonna dei Palafenieri
(Madonna of the Palafrenieri; 1605-06) and
San Giovanni Battista
(St John the Baptist;
1609-10), probably Caravaggio's last work. Then there's the much-loved
Ragazzo col
Canestro di Frutta
(Boy with a Basket of Fruit; 1593-95) and the dramatic
Davide con la
Testa di Golia
(David with the Head of Goliath; 1609-10) - Goliath's severed head is said
to be a self-portrait.
