The Borghese Gallery masterpieces you cannot miss
A smiling woman raises a sun, but the figure meant to uncover her is missing. In Truth Unveiled by Time, Gian Lorenzo Bernini carved Truth and planned for Time to draw back her covering. He never made that second figure. Bernini made the marble for himself during a difficult period in his career. Today, you […]
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An old man sits high on his son’s shoulder, while a small boy follows behind their legs. In Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius, Gian Lorenzo Bernini brings three generations together in a single marble group: Aeneas carries his father, Anchises, out of burning Troy, with his son Ascanius close behind. Made for Cardinal Scipione Borghese and […]
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A thin arm stretches across the books toward a skull on the far side of the table. In Saint Jerome by Caravaggio, the elderly saint keeps his eyes lowered to an open volume while his hand holds a quill. His red cloak leaves part of his chest bare, and a faint halo curves above his […]
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A small apple rests in her left hand, while her right hand touches the back of her head. In Paolina Borghese as Venus Victrix, Antonio Canova shows Napoleon’s sister reclining bare-breasted on a cushioned couch. The apple identifies her as Venus, the goddess who won the prize for beauty in the Judgment of Paris. Carved […]
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One elder presses a finger to his lips while Susanna turns on her seat and lifts her face upward. In Susanna and the Elders by Peter Paul Rubens, her extended leg crosses the foreground as the two men lean close behind her. They are judges threatening to accuse her of adultery unless she agrees to […]
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A young woman holds a small unicorn against her lap, its single horn rising beside her red sleeve. Raphael’s Lady with a Unicorn, also known as Portrait of a Young Woman with a Unicorn, is a portrait in Rome’s Borghese Gallery. Before twentieth-century restoration, the same woman appeared as Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
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Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit, in the Borghese Gallery in Rome, shows a young man holding a wicker basket filled with fruit and leaves. His head tilts to one side, and his loose white shirt leaves one shoulder bare. Light catches his face, shoulder, and the fruit, while shadows separate the grapes and folds of fabric.
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Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath, displayed in Room 8 of the Borghese Gallery in Rome, shows the young David holding Goliath’s severed head by the hair. His sword is lowered, and his gaze rests on the defeated giant.
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Caravaggio’s Young Sick Bacchus shows a young man wearing an ivy wreath and holding green grapes. His body turns away while his face looks toward the viewer. Light catches his bare shoulder against the dark background.
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Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love shows two similar-looking women beside a carved stone sarcophagus filled with water. One wears a white dress; the other is nude, with drapery across her lap and a lamp raised in one hand. Between them, Cupid stirs the water.
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