Sunday, October 16, 2016

17th-century painting at the Borghese Gallery, Rome

Lavinia Fontana
Minerva dressing
1613
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Lavinia Fontana
Head of a youth
1606
tempera on paper
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Alessandro Turchi
Raising of Lazarus
1617
oil on slate
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Alessandro Turchi
Lamentation
1617
oil on slate
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Domenichino
Cumaean Sibyl
1617
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Domenichino
Diana and her Nymphs
1616-17
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Domenichino
Diana and her Nymphs (detail)
1616-17
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

The paintings above by Lavinia Fontana, Alessandro Turchi, and Domenichino were all collected personally, acquired from the artists in the early 17th century by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, for whom Palazzo Borghese in Rome was built. The Borghese paintings below by Honthorst, Rubens, Guido Reni, and Lanfranco entered the collection after Scipione's lifetime.

Gerrit van Honthorst
The Concert
1626-30
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Gerrit van Honthorst
Susanna and the Elders
early 17th century
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Peter Paul Rubens
Deposition
1602
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Guido Reni
Moses with the Tablet of the Law
1624
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Giovanni Lanfranco
Norandino and Lucina discovered by the Ogre
ca. 1624
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

The present fame of Scipione Borghese (1577-1633) is primarily due to his early and active patronage of the painter Caravaggio, whose present vogue is of course ongoing and extreme. Caravaggio was in fact carrying the final canvas (the juvenile Baptist) back to Rome as a gift of ingratiation intended for the Cardinal  who did in fact manage to acquire the gift despite the death of the giver en route.

Caravaggio
St Jerome
ca. 1606
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Caravaggio
Madonna dei Palafrenieri
1606
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Caravaggio
St John the Baptist
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome