Rome Art

Some of Rome's Galleries and Artworks

Villa Borghese Palazzo Barberini Vatican Galleries Art in Rome's Churches Galleria Doria Pamphilj

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Villa Borghese

Rome's premier gallery for Renaissance, Baroque and later art is in the Villa Borghese, weekender for the Borghese family (believe me - the whole building would fit into part of one of the wings of the family's massive dark Palazzo in town). Below are just four of the wide range of artists and sculptors represented ..... from top left clockwise ..... Canova sculpts Paolina Borghese (nee Napoleon's sister, who would get her gear of at the slightest artistic or other excuse) circa 1805, Perugino's beautiful model reappears as the Madonna con Bambino, Rafaello (middle) paints a man (possibly Pinturrichio whom he helped out on the earlier stages of the Piccolomini Library frescos), Carpaccio makes a rare contribution outside Venice with Cortigiana, and Rome's very own Caravaggio contributes a luminously restored San Girolamo (Jerome).

Some Major Renaissance Artists and Architects who Worked in Rome
Fra Angelico (Florence)	1395 - 1455 (60)
Perugino (Pietro Vannucci) (Perugia)	1450 - 1523 (73)
Bernardo il Pinturicchio (Florence)	c1452 - 1513 (61)
Michelangelo (Florence)	1475 - 1564 (89)
Raphael (Urbino)	1483 - 1520 (37)
Antonio da Sangallo	1483 - 1546 (63)
Caravaggio	1573 - 1610 (37)
Bernini	1598 - 1680 (82)
Borromini	1599 - 1667 (68)

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Palazzo Barberini

By comparison, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Palazzo Barberini relies heavily on one painting, Raphael's portrait of his mistress "La Fornarina", in its promotion and signage - no hint until you ascended the many stairs in May 2005 and paid to get in, that that the lady was actually in Alabama or somewhere equally improbable. La F can also be found, softer eyed and clothed, in the Galleria Palatina in Florence's Pitti Palace (above right).

Back in the Barberini, we just had to make do with one of Hans Holbein's portraits of Enrico VIII - a pretty grizzly second best (though this one is at least a decent size) whatever your opinion of the cold look on the face of the baker's daughter. As compensation, we went later to the restaurant in her back garden.

Vatican Galleries

The other big Rome gallery attraction is the Vatican Galleries, which even with an early start and outside the main season, is a thoroughly uncomfortable crowded experience, with the Sistine chapel resembling a Tokyo subway station in the rush hour (complete with a little Japanese man letting off a forbidden flashgun in Dom Paradox's face - "velly solly").

Still, it was important for us to see, just once, Raphael's "School of Athens" in the Stanza della Segnatura. On the left (in green) is Averroës (Ibn Rushd (1126 - 1198 (72)), the Cordoban scholar, who was one of the most important medieval commentators on Aristotle and the harmonisation of Aristotelian philosophy with the teachings of the Quran.

On the right of the right are crowd members Raphael and Sodoma (probably) interacting with Ptolomy (mapper, with globe map for easy identification from the back), and Zoroaster (pre monotheistic prophet aka Zarathustra).

Link to Vatican Museums Online

Art in Rome's Churches

Much of the best art is to be found in the churches of Rome. Clockwise from above left - Michelangelo's sublimely sad Pieta, completed for the Holy Year of 1500 and in the Vatican Basilica of Saint Peter, Bernini's orgasmically Blessed Ludovica Albertoni in San Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere, "Santa Cecilia" by Stefano Mademo (1599) in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, and Caravaggio's Madonna of the Pilgrims in Sant'Agostino.

Galleria Doria Pamphilj

The Galleria Doria Pamphilj, close to the Pantheon, is the town palazzo of an old Roman family who included Pope Innocent X (who managed, surprise surprise, to boost the family fortunes considerably). The many paintings are hung in the old reception rooms of the Palazzo, which has been painstakingly restored and looked after. The painting collection itself is better than the Barberini one, and hardly anyone goes there. Thoroughly recommended - also note that the audio tour recorded by a member of the family is unusually interesting.