Rome - Villa Borghese

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Borghese.

The ground floor has a loggia of five arcades, over which is a large open terrace. The art-loving Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a great collector of antiquities, also commissioned work from contemporary artists. His collection of antiquities formed the basis of the Borghese Museum - though during the Napoleonic period Camillo Borghese was compelled to sell some works to the Louvre. At the beginning of the 20th century the collection of pictures was formed into the Borghese Gallery. The five fragments of a mosaic pavement from Torrenuova, contained in the richly decorated entrance hall, date from the fourth century and show gladiator contests and hunting scenes. The Baroque ceiling frescoes, by Mariano Rossi, represent "Camillus after the parley with Brennus, commander of the Gallic army" and "Allegory of Time". Outstanding works of sculpture in the museum include Canova'a figure of Pauline Borghese as Venus (1805); David with his sling (1623-24), commissioned from Bernini by Scipione Borghese; Apollo and Daphne, a masterpiece by Bernini, depicting the transformation of Daphne into a laurel-bush to save her from pursuit by Apollo; the Rape of Prosperina, also by Bernini (1621-22); the Sleeping Hermaphrodite (a Roman copy of a Greek original); Aeneas with his father Anchises, by Gian Lorenzo and Pietro Bernini (also son and father) and Bernini's Truth revealed by Time.

The picture collection includes works by Raphael (among them an Entombment), Botticelli, Pinturicchio, Perugino, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Sodoma, Dürer, Lotto, Domenichino ("Diana the Huntress"), Caravaggio (Madonna dei Palafrenieri), Rubens, Correggio (Danae), Bernini, Bassano, Van Dyck, Titian (Sacred and Profane Love), Bellini, Paolo Veronese and Antonello da Messina (Male Portrait).

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attraction, even though the enclosures are outdated and in process of renovation.