There will be no pictures…… My camera decided to go on
vacation. :(
Today we headed to the Villa Borghese to continue our study
of life outside of the city and church life.
Located on approximately 1700 acres, the park and now museum and gallery
were once the home of the Borghese family, including Cardinal Scipione Borghese
the nephew to Pope Paul V. Considered to
be a country home in 1605, it now sits in the center of Rome as a public
park. The cardinal was powerful and a voracious
collector of art, sometimes collecting it by less than moral means. His
collection of Caravaggio paintings grew to over a dozen, and many are still
seen in the gallery today. At the time that this villa was built, the gallery
was a new phenomenon and the purpose of art grew to include more than just the
telling of religious stories. Art was placed in personal galleries as a prompt
for conversations between the visitors of the villa. Smaller paintings were also introduced at this
time, a step away from the conventions of large altarpiece paintings. The early
Caravaggio paintings in the gallery show immediately how different his approach
to painting was at the time. A 1594 self-portrait of Caravaggio holding a fruit
basket engages the viewer, with a certain type of seduction. The portrait
gazing into the viewer’s eyes, also a new convention of that time. Other works by Caravaggio include a
commissioned work for St Peter’s, The Madonna of the Palafrenieri, which was
refused by the church due to the subjects being too everyday, and the Madonna
being too provocative. Included in the
gallery is also what is considered to be Caravaggio’s last painting Young St
John the Baptist. At the time of his death, Caravaggio had been on the run for
years with a price on his head for committing the crime of murder. Although he
was pardoned by the pope, he did not make it back to Rome for the pardon and he
died of malaria before the age of 40.
The cardinal Borghese also took in the sculptor Bernini who
was heavily influenced by the large collection of sculpture from antiquity.
Bernini was given a sculptural/artistic challenge to create a series of
sculptures based on stories of mythical characters. The first was entitled
Aeneas and Anchises was sculpted when Bernini was just 15 years old. This
sculpture, features 3 human forms, showing different ages, and complex
positioning of the bodies as Aeneas carries his father Anchises. The sculpture references the Michelangelo
Christ Risen, and also is reminiscent of the Raphael painting Fire In Borgo,
showing that Bernini was aware of the artists that had come before him. Other
sculptures that were included in this commission include Apollo and Daphne. One
of his most famous sculptures today it depicts the story of Daphne turning into
a laurel tree at the touch of Apollo. A stunning sculptural feat, with the
graceful modeling of bodies as well as the realism of the body’s transition
into a tree. The third of these sculptures tells the story of the Rape of
Persephone. It shows Pluto holding Persephone as she struggles to free herself.
One of the most stunning aspects of this sculpture is the realism created in
stone of the fingers pressing into the flesh. The stone looks as flesh, soft
and supple, tricking the eye to forget that it is indeed marble. Also in the
Borghese gallery is Bernini’s version of David and Goliath. Rather than having
the facial expression that Michelangelo’s David has, that keeps us from knowing
at what point in the action the sculpture is placed, Bernini’s David brings us
right into the action, letting us know that the giant is right behind us,
carrying our gaze to make sure of our safety.
The paintings and sculptures included today are too many to
list in the size constraints of a blog. I have tried to hit upon what I thought
was the most moving to me personally.
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