Ritratto di Roma Moderna…

1652

Shoults Itb 1652 R

Roma: Filippo de’Rossi

The Medici, the Borgias, the Sforzas and the Borghese – just a handful of prominent Italian families that rose to power during the Renaissance. Marcantonio Borghese (d. 1574) moved to Rome and worked as a papal lawyer and politician; his son Camillo (1552-1621) became Pope Paul V in 1605. Pope Paul’s nephew Scipione Borghese (1577-1633), a cardinal and art lover, had the Villa Borghese built as his ‘out-of-town party pad’ and a repository for all his collected artworks. The villa and its gardens covered 148 acres. Today the building is known as the Galleria Borghese and houses much of the art work collected by Scipione – works by Caravaggio, Titian, Raphael, Rubens, Bernini, Canova, and others.