About the museum
The story of the Galleria Borghese
The Galleria Borghese is housed in the Villa Borghese, built in the early seventeenth century for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, in what is now one of Rome's great parks. The Italian state bought the collection in 1902.
Scipione was an early patron of both Caravaggio and Bernini, and the villa still holds a remarkable group of their works, along with Raphael and Titian.
The collection
Cardinal Scipione Borghese collected ancient sculpture and the most daring artists of his day. He owned a dozen paintings by Caravaggio, of which six remain in the gallery, and he commissioned Bernini's great marble groups Apollo and Daphne, The Rape of Proserpina and David.
The painting gallery on the upper floor holds Raphael's Deposition, Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, Correggio's Danaë and works by Domenichino and Rubens, while Canova's reclining Paolina Borghese is on the ground floor.
At ArtLogia you can order 65 of its paintings as hand-painted reproductions, by 41 artists led by Caravaggio, Dosso Dossi and Titian.
- paintings to order
- 65
- artists
- 41
- art movements
- 8
- years covered
- 1475–1806
The building
The villa was designed by Flaminio Ponzio and Giovanni Vasanzio as a 'villa of delights' for parties and display rather than living. Its eighteenth-century ceiling frescoes and marble rooms make the house itself part of the experience.
Masterpieces to see
Sacred and Profane LoveTitian, 1514 · Hand-painted reproduction available
The DepositionRaphael, 1507 · Hand-painted reproduction available
Boy with a Basket of FruitCaravaggio, 1594 · Hand-painted reproduction available
David with the Head of GoliathCaravaggio, 1605 · Hand-painted reproduction available- Sick BacchusFind similar reproductions
Planning a visit
Visits are limited to timed two-hour slots, so reservation is required.
