The Borghese Gallery

The Borghese Gallery is located inside the Villa Borghese, a large park in the city of Rome, surrounded by a beautiful Italian garden and various buildings including Palazzo Borghese. The majestic park and the splendid Palazzo, owned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, were designed with the intent to create a “Villa of delights” the realization of which was entrusted to Flaminio Ponzio and later to John Vasanzio.

Inside the Palazzo Borghese is the art collection of Cardinal Borghese and, thanks to these extraordinary masterpieces, the gallery is famous all over the world. The Borghese Gallery museum houses an important collection of masterpieces by Bernini, Raphael, Caravaggio and Canova, including “The Victorian Venus”  (1805), internationally known as Pauline Bonaparte, which is the most famous piece in the museum. The collection is set on two floors, 20 rooms that still retain the eighteenth-century decoration. The lower level is mostly dedicated to the sculptures rather than the paintings.

Since 2006, the Superintendence for the State Museums of Rome has promoted a valuable initiative in order to broaden the knowledge of historical and artistic scholars and enthusiasts related to the art of the fourteenth / fifteenth century. For this reason the “Ten Great Exhibitions”  project came to life and for every year, for 10 years, organizes ,within the Borghese Gallery, exhibitions of some works of  great authors of the fourteenth / fifteenth century. 2013 will be dedicated to Bernini.