Magnificent heirlooms of Baroque opulence
Rome’s Galleria Borghese is located in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana, an elegant country home for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a powerful nephew of Pope Paul V. The gallery holds a substantial portion of the Borghese collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, begun by Scipione Borghese, an intensely passionate and prodigious collector. These works, many masterpieces of the 15th through 19th centuries, are spread out across two floors and 24 rooms, with its largest, the salone, displaying an impressive trompe-l’oeil ceiling fresco by Mariano Rossi. Especially prized are marble sculptures by Bernini—many of secular subjects in their original spaces—as well as several works by Caravaggio, notably his famed “Boy with a Basket of Fruit,” from around 1593. Other standout names include Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Domenichino, Correggio and Canova.
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