*This article is published by Open Book during writer-in-residence appointment.
I visited the wonderous Borghese Gallery and gardens in Rome this summer for the first time. Originally a powerful merchant family from Sienna, the Borgheses moved to Rome in the 16th century. Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew to Pope Paul V (reign 1605–1621), built this breathtakingly grand palazzo in an effort to expand the family’s influence and telegraph their wealth at a time when art was at the very centre of power, government, and civic life.
Borghese Gallery, Rome
Originally a powerful merchant family from Sienna, the Borgheses moved to Rome in the 16th century.
Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew to Pope Paul V (reign 1605–1621), built this breathtakingly grand palazzo in an effort to expand the family’s influence and telegraph their wealth at a time when art was at the very centre of power, government, and civic life.
I learned all this during a small group tour at the gallery, let by an Italian art historian. With great knowledge and enthusiasm, Luciana wove a compelling narrative arc about the history of art, the dominating influence of Roman society, the political machinations within Italy and Europe at the time, and the rise (and ultimately fall) of the Borgheses.
Individual art pieces served as characters in her narrative. The specificity by which she brought them to life contextualized by the historical, political and artistic realities of the time, deepened my emotional connection to the collection, the gallery and the city.
This semi-nude neoclassical portrait marble sculpture is Pauline Borghese Bonaparte as Venus Victrix, completed between 1804-1806, by Antonio Canova.
Sculpture: Venus Victrix
Pauline was the younger sister of Napolean and wife of Camillo Borghese, thus one of the most powerful women in Europe at the time. She began life in poverty and throughout a stunning series of events and sudden reversals before dying at 44, she proved herself to be no shrinking violet.
The sculpture was commissioned after Pauline married into the Borghese family. Constructed on a dais that slowly rotated in front of the viewing audience, it was originally entirely covered in genuine gold leaf.
Pauline caused controversy at the time by posing naked for Canova, and for touring with the sculpture. Though this was hardly the first controversy she stared down. Married previously to a general who served under her brother, Pauline enjoyed many lovers during and between marriages, with high society gossiping about her ‘Bacchanalian promiscuity.’
She was powerful enough to waive off the criticism – that is, until her husband got into financial trouble and had to sell off artwork to pay his debts (to the Louvre, forming the Borghese collection there) and her brother was deposed.