Rome Borghese gallery |
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Collection title
Magic Italy - Tourism and Tourists
First broadcast date
02/21/2010
Abstract
Federico Quaranta and Nicola Prudente talk with the magician Heldin. They invite us to discover the Borghese Gallery, located on the Pincio, a hill in Rome.
The Villa Borghese was built by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V, in the early seventeenth century. As he was an art lover, he was the first to realize the incredible talent of the artists Caravaggio and Bernini .
The family's collection continues to grow.
In the early nineteenth century, the "Venus Victrix" Canova which represents Pauline Borghese was the last work integrated in the collections.
Views of the museum collections and gardens surrounding the Villa: paintings by Caravaggio, sculptures by Bernini.
Comments of Anna Coliva, director of the Gallery.
Broadcaster
RAI - RAI Uno
Audiovisual form
Documentary
Secondary themes
- Tourism and cultural sites / Architecture
- Art, Culture and Knowledge / Fine arts / Painting
- Art, Culture and Knowledge / Fine arts / Sculpture
Credits / Cast
- Quaranta Federico - Speaker
- Prudente Nicola - Speaker
Original language
Italian
Context
Rome, the Borghese Gallery
Stephane Mourlane
The Borghese Gallery encompasses one of the finest collections of art in Rome. The museum is housed in a villa (casino nobile) at the bottom of a vast park of 80 hectares on the Pincio hill. These lands are acquired at the beginning of the sixteenth century by the Borghese family, derived from Siena, when one of their members, Camille Borghese, ascended the throne of St. Peter. After being elected as pope in 1605, Paul V intends to build a villa in conformity with the aristocratic times. Taking the classical model, this type of property located on the edge of the city, is designed for the vacations. The Pope intends to glorify his family and reaping the benefits of his status.
He entrusted the work management to his nephew, Scipione Caffarelli Borghese, educated him and promoted him to cardinal by nepotism. Cardinal Borghese had therefore a leading role in the affairs of the Church, often mixed with his personal and family interests. The power of the Church has indeed provided the Borghese family with large financial resources and significant leverage, helping them in carrying out their projects. Hence, they call for one of the most famous architects of the time, Flaminio Ponzo for the construction of the pavilion and the gardens. Villa Borghese should be able to compete with that of the Farnese and Medici, other major papal families. The architect is fully engaged in the style of the cons-reform that, throughout the seventeenth century, presided over the urban renovation of the Baroque period in Rome.
He was supposed to satisfy the desires of the Cardinal in building an "Elysium of delights", capable of accommodating a large collection of artworks. The layout of the rooms and the numerous windows aiming at irradiating the artworks, fulfill this ambition. Passionate about art, Scipione Borghese settled first the family collection in the pavilion, comprising antique sculptures and paintings. However, he started enriching it, using all the available means, in an unscrupulous manner. Hence, in 1607, he appropriated the collection of Cavalier d'Arpino (107 paintings) that has been confiscated by the pope. Therefore, Cardinal Borghese found a way to flatter his taste for the mannerism and discovered the work of Michelangelo Merisi through two of his first paintings. He was fascinated by the innovative style of the so-called Caravaggio and hence, acquired many paintings. Among these is the "Madonna of the Grooms" belonging originally to a chapel in the basilica of St. Peter.
Another outstanding artwork of the collection was acquired fraudulently over again: the "Deposition" painting of Raphael is secretly stolen and taken to the Baglioni Chapel of the Church of Saint Francis of Perugia. A large number of the paintings is nevertheless purchased or persist due to the protection granted to some artists. The primary beneficiary from the Cardinal’s support was Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bernini's sculptures are "Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius" (1619), "The Rape of Proserpina" (1622), "David" (1624), "Apollo and Daphne" (1625). Those sculptures played a major role in the Borghese collection. They were the reason behind the artist’s reputation that enabled him to partake in the architectural renovation of Rome.
After the death of Cardinal Borghese, Borghese collection became among the most important of that time: beside the artworks of the Cavalier d'Arpino, Caravaggio, Raphael and Bernini, there were those of Domenechino, Veronese, Titian, just to name a few. His descendants preserved and enriched the collection. In 1782, under the command of Marcantonio IV Borghese, the interiors of the Villa were redecorated in a neo-classical style. However, the collection was severely amputated during the French occupation. The Prince Camillo Borghese, husband of Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon 1st was forced to sell hundreds of artworks (including ancient sculptures and reliefs). Even If a part of it was restored in 1815 after the collapse of the empire, however, a part of the collection remains a property of the Louvre Museum. To avoid a new dispersion, Prince François Borghese established an inalienable Trust Fund. In 1901, the new Italian government took possession of the entire Villa of Borghese to open it to the public. The management of the Borghese Gallery was therefore entrusted to the painter and collector Giovanni Piancastelli. Since then, the visitors are always numerous: as they reached in 2008, nearly 500,000.
Bibliography :
Galleria Borghese : l’arte, la storia, Rome, Progetti museali, 1996
I Borghese, storia di una famiglia, Roma, Progetti museali, 1996