Galleria Borghese

Son in law Martin's mother Luce recommended a visit to the Borghese Gallery. This remarkable collection of art was taken over from the Borghese family in the 1870's by the Italian state. (It was Nationalised). It is managed by the City of Rome.  Some of Berninin's best sculptures and Caravaggio's paintings sit alongside Classical, Renaissance and Neo-Classical works in the beautiful frescoed 17th Century Villa set in the Villa Borghese park, all of which once belonged to the great art-lover of the early Baroque, Cardinal Scipione Borghese. He patronized the young Bernini and Caravaggio, in the process of amassing one of Rome's richest private collections.

The guide, Lorenzo, was completing his Phd in the politics and sociology of art. He was an excellent teacher and for each painting or sculpture he picked out he told the story of the artists life and the interpretation of the many symbolic features of the art work.   

This is a mosaic depicting Cardinal Borghese surrounded by various symbols of art 

The Borghese's most famous painting (1507) although neither the gallery's nor Raphael's best was commissioned by the Peruvian matriarch Atalanta Baglioni to honor her assassinated son.

Bernini's Rape of Persephone. Bernini carved this masterpiece at the age of 23 (1621-2). Muscular Hades throws his head back with laughter, his strong fingers pressing into the maiden's soft flesh as she struggles to break free of his grasp.

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Caravaggio's young man with a basket of fruit.

Canova's Pauline Bonaparte. Napoleon's sister caused a scandal with this half-naked portrait (1805-8) lounging like a Classical goddess on a sushion carved of marble.