Borghese Gallery: Actually open

Where: Rome, Italy
When: May 10, 2015
With: Mom, Bobby, Ashley

By now, I sound like a broken record: last time I was in Rome, it snowed and most of the sites were shut down..blah blah blah. However, a big shock and surprise after walking through the snow-filled Borghese gardens was the discovery that the Gallery of the same name was also closed due to snow. What? How do you close an art museum due to snow? No one could shovel the steps? Does anyone even know how?? At that point, we were somewhat used to the sign "Closed Due to Snow", so add this to the list of attractions I wanted to see upon my return to Rome. 

So my family trip to Rome included a stop at this museum. This beautiful villa sitting at the top of a high hill amidst a beautiful park hosts a large collection of art amassed by Cardinal Scipione Borghese. It was built in the early-1600s based on the Cardinal's own designs. In 1902, the family sold the estate and its belongings to the Italian Government, making it one of Italy's first official museums. 

The Borghese Gallery has quite a strict visiting policy. Entry to the museum is only allowed every two hours, and the visit is capped at two hours, after which you are escorted out of the building to make way for the next group. In the summertime, reservations for an entrance time must be made a couple days ahead. For the usually laidback Italians, this was quite the process. 

The museum has two levels of art. Each room is decorated from floor to ceiling in frescos, marbles, and reliefs, and usually a statue or two thrown in. So as soon as we entered, it was sensory overload. 

By accident, we headed up to the second level first, even though the tour is meant to start on the first level. But that just meant we got to save the best for last and experience it all with fewer people (though the crowd wasn't too bad, probably due to that hectic reservation system). 

The second floor is reserved to showcase the museum's collection of paintings. Each room was designed with a theme in mind: the Egyptian Room, the Flemish Room, etc. Everything from top to bottom was meant to embody the theme of the room, often times with statues and artwork playing off each other and the decor of the room. The paintings were diverse and the audioguide provided some excellent backstory. 

However, the main draw of the museum sits back on the first floor, where the focal point of the rooms is the sculptures. The first room we entered, the Emperor's Room, is named for the several busts of emperors that surround the massive space.

 In the center of this room is an amazing statue: The Rape of Persepone by Bernini. The scene shows when Pluto, God of the Underworld, kidnaps Persephone, daughter of Ceres, the Goddess of the Harvest. Ceres looks everywhere for her daughter, neglecting the harvest and causing hunger among the people. Finally, Jupiter demands Pluto releases Persephone so that the crops will grow, which he does, but not before tricking her into eating pomegranate seeds, the food of the underworld. While Persephone was allowed to leave the underworld for half the year, as she had tasted the food of the afterlife, she was forced to return to Pluto for the other half of the year. This story was meant to explain why the seasons changed, as Ceres would mourn her daughter during her time in the underworld. 

Obviously, this statue shows the kidnapping in progress. The detail of his fingers pressing into her flesh is remarkable. It's difficult to believe she made of hard marble. 

Another Roman myth explained in the next room. This is a statue of Aeneas, the "founder of Rome", who escaped death in Troy after it was sacked. On his shoulder, he carries his aging father, who carries small figures of their family. Behind him, a small boy carries the family's hearth flame. These images are meant to display the strong Roman values of home and family.  

This next room came as quite the shock to me. It was actually the grand entrance hall, but for whatever reason, it was one of the last rooms I stumbled into. It was huge and the ceiling had the most colorful and epic fresco on top. It was gorgeous! I was completely awestruck by all the vibrant color. 

When I was finally able to tear my eyes away from the ceiling, the rest of the room was equally as impressive, encircled by large busts and ancient Greek statues. Epic is the only word I can use to describe it. 

Over the door across from the main entrance sat a giant relief of a warrior falling off his horse. The horse in the relief is very old, carved in the 1st or 2nd BC. However, unlike today where we would show such old pieces of art as they had survived to date, back in the Renaissance, Cardinal Borghese commissioned Bernini to have the rider sculpted back onto the relief. This gives us a rare look at what the completed relief may have looked like. 

Even the floor of this room was impressive. In the center was an old mosaic showing several gladiators battling gigantic beasts. Their names were listed alongside their image, and if a theta(Ɵ) was shown nearby, then the gladiator had been killed at the time the mosaic was done. 

In the last few rooms of the first floor were three incredible sculptures. The first was Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte and wife to Camilo Borghese. This statue caused quite the stir in the 1700s for displaying royalty in the nude. However, Pauline was flattered to be displayed so well (symbolism of the sculpture indicates her image was being compared to the likes of Helen of Troy) and as a patron of the arts, she had nothing but praise for it. I was obsessed with the creases in the pillow marks. Looks almost soft enough to lay on...

 In the next room was David by Bernini. Unlike his famous counterpart in Florence, this David is about to hurl his stone at goliath, and the determination on his face is clear. He is so human in this sculpture, and the movement captured is incredible. Some say this was actually a self-portrait of Bernini. 

The final room contains what was probably my favorite sculpture of the museum, Bernini's Apollo and Daphne. In this sculpture, a lovestruck Apollo has just stumbled upon the naked Daphne while she bathed and chases her down. Daphne screams out to her father, a river God, who turns her into a tree to escape Apollo's clutches. 

 This sculpture captures the moment mid-transformation. Apollo still looks at her in wonder, while Daphne screams in fear as the ends of her limbs and hair begin sprouting leaves. 

The other cool part of this sculpture is how it changes as you walk around it. It's pretty obvious what's going on from the front, but walk around to the back, and Apollo just looks like he's getting up close and personal with a tree as there's no evidence of a maiden in site. 

At that point, our two hours were almost up and we decided to beat the rush to head out. I was shocked how much I enjoyed this museum due to its simple collection of fantastic pieces. This really ended up being a highlight of our entire trip to Italy. Definitely glad I made it back!