2024 - Europe: 05/27/24

21 May 2024 - Rome, Italy (Borghese and Barberini)

We have only two days left in this part of Rome and I wanted to spend it visiting some of the famous art museums. We had a guided tour of the Borghese gallery which is a beautiful Baroque villa with world class art. The second floor with all the paintings was closed for renovation so we were able to only see the sculptures and a couple of the paintings moved down from the second floor. The rest of the paintings are temporarily displayed at the Barberini Museum which we visited the next day. The Borghese gallery is located in a beautiful park that we were able to relax in for a couple of hours. In between our art visits, we did some more wandering and saw more beautiful fountains and an amazing view from the Quirinale Plaza, where the Italian President’s Palace (I think he uses it only for formal functions) is located. Rome is absolutely amazing! Now we transfer to a hotel near the Vatican. Looking forward to seeing St. Peter’s Basilica and museums.

Closeup of Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne. The hair looks so real and the movement of the figures just blew my mind. To create such a living object from a slab of marble!

Several floors in the villa have detailed mosaics. I never really realized before that Rome had such beautiful mosaics.

Bernini’s The Rape of Proserpina is the centerpiece of this beautiful room. The villa was owned by the Borghese family, a powerful force during the Baroque period.

These mythology stories seem to focus a lot on a male god seeing a female human or goddess and deciding they want them, so they just take them. In this one, Pluto takes Proserpina (unwillingly) to the underworld. Negotiations ensue and she is allowed to leave the underworld 6 months a year, hence, spring comes back to the world, and when she has to return to the underworld, winter starts.

Look at how his hand is grasping her thigh. Such a realistic depiction. You can see the blood veins in his leg. All these great artists studied anatomy in detail, using cadavers. Bernini was only 23 years old.

Bernini’s David. He completed this in only 8 months. Cardinal Borghese was a big patron of Bernini.

This Bernini piece shows the three ages of man - a child, an adult and an old man. Bernini was only 20 years old when he sculpted this! His father, also a sculptor, probably helped him. This represents three generations of the Aeneas family, fleeing from Troy, as described in the Aeneid. It is famous for its depiction of movement while carrying a great weight.

You can also see, from the back, how he sculpted the skin of a child, an adult and an aged person. How does one know how to do this? Just in awe!

In his time, the cardinal was well known for his art collection. He would hold events where the participants came specifically to view his art, essentially turning his home into an art museum.

Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath, was painted as a gift to the Pope. It was a peace offering asking for forgiveness for a crime Caravaggio committed (murder in the moment of drunkenness). He had been banned from Rome and was asking to be allowed back. Goliath’s head is a self-portrait.

This is a Canova piece, Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victoria,

This is my absolute favorite piece, Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne. Once again, a god decides he wants a woman he sees and takes her. In this case, Daphne’s mother turns her into a laurel tree, preventing the abduction.

Not only does Bernini take on the challenge of showing movement in the figures, he also depicts a human turning into a tree. You just kind of forget that the medium is marble.

The Borghese park is quite large, over 200 acres (bigger than the Vatican). Private until the 1900s, it now has a children’s amusement park equestrian center, and athletic fields.

Lots of water fountains and walking paths.

A wedding party was having pictures taken.

The Barberini Gallery was the Baroque home (palazzo) of the Barberini family, another powerful Roman family. Their crest contains bees and, if you are hunting, you will find bees all over the city on buildings that the family built. Family members lived in the apartment here until 1955.

The palazzos we visited were full of beautifully painted ceilings.

This portrait of a young woman with unicorn is thought to be a betrothal painting, since the unicorn symbolizes chastity. X-ray analysis shows that it might have been a repaint of an older painting, where the unicorn was a small dog.

Absolutely huge room which was used for entertainment.

Beautiful frescoed ceilings influenced many other ceilings in Rome.

A famous Botticelli painting.

Bernini sculpted lots of famous people in his day.

Leda and the Swan, another mythology story about a woman being seduced by a god, this time Zeus disguised as a swan. This was painted by Sesto, from Leonardo da Vinci’s circle. Da Vinci’s picture has been lost. Of all the hundreds of paintings he is thought to have done, only 15 are known to exist.